“Dean.” My name comes out as a tiny cry—a plea. “Don’t do this.” I stand from the couch, stepping towards her with outstretched hands. She moves back to avoid my reach and I pause my feet, my arms falling at my sides, defeated. “I don’t want to hurt you…” “Then don’t. I don’t want you to hurt me.” She folds her arms across her chest, her body already trembling. “We can work through this.” “We can’t. And it’s not because I don’t care about you… we’ve had an amazing run, and I don’t regret a single moment of the last fifteen years.”
