The Companion

by E.E. Ottoman

"But I know what you are talking about. I've felt like that before too. To be intimate with someone and feel not right afterward, too vulnerable and too seen." He took a draw on his cigarette. "I spend so much of my time not being seen. Explaining and quantifying myself." "Making myself small and unseen," Madeline said. "Unthreatening and unremarkable." "In everything," Victor agreed. "So, to not have to do that to be accepted without a fight, it can be almost painful. Getting what you want and not knowing what to do with it. I am good at being hurt and bad at being loved."

Imagining herself as a beautiful woman had been one thing—that dream had never been far from her mind—but one who was loved and fought for? That was something she'd never been able to fathom even then.