When We Were Worthy

by Marybeth Mayhew Whalen

Because when a guy showed her attention, she felt seen, known, loved, appreciated. She let them give her what she didn’t have herself, as if the only way that validation could be obtained was if someone else—someone male—provided it.

But it was rare that anyone got what he or she deserved in this life, for better or for worse. Which was what made it so awful and amazing at the very same time.

Maybe that’s what everyone in the world was searching for—someone who, when they felt vulnerable and exposed and afraid, would meet them in the doorway with a look of love so pure it made all that other stuff fall away.