You couldn’t ‘un-love’ a man like Ethic. You couldn’t unlearn the value he made his woman feel. You couldn’t stop the tickle that spread through your stomach under his scrutiny. His love wasn’t the Indian-giving kind. There were no take backs. Once he gave it, it settled in your bones. Not even the hate she felt could scrape the love from her existence. So, inside her lived both adulation and contempt. Once a woman experienced the presence of a real man, her life changed.
