The No-Show

by Beth O'Leary

Perhaps I am not so hard to like, Jane thinks fiercely as she meets Aggie’s eyes. Perhaps I am not so peculiar, so awkward, so difficult. Perhaps he was wrong about all that, too.

“That’s the difference between a friend and a lover, Jane. A friend doesn’t need the whole of you. If you don’t want to tell me about your life before we met, I don’t give a toss—I’m in it for the Jane that’s here and now, aren’t I? I take you as you come. But if I loved you, I’d want everything. Wouldn’t I?

Being a human is messy, Jane, Aggie told her the other day. No amount of rules can fix that. Sometimes you just need to let yourself feel something, even if it’s ugly.

Most people are shit, what are you going to do about it? And she thinks, I’m going to notice all the ones who are doing their very best not to be.