decided to just keep the memory of him—who he was before that day—preserved in a safe pocket of my mind where it would never be tarnished. I could visit that pristine memory from time to time, could brush my fingers over its perfection and know that, at least for a little while, I’d had him. I could forget how, one moment, I was the happiest I’d ever been, and in the very next breath, my entire world had been shattered.
