None of This Is True

by Lisa Jewell

Nathan has always been a walking list of pros and cons, from the very first time she met him.

All she had wanted, from the moment they first got together, was to please him, to be the person he thought she was, to be his dream come true.

She has not seen Roxy. The emptiness of this realization scoops out the base of her belly. But then relief quickly takes its place.

And there it is, the point which it all boils down to eventually. The point where there are no words, no theories, no explanations for behaviors that baffle and infuriate and hurt. Just that. Men.

She was a brooding presence in social situations; it was almost as if she spent her whole life just waiting for someone to show her that they didn’t want her.

“You have to be free in order to be in control, Alix. You have to be free. No baggage. A clean break.