The Wake-Up Call

by Beth O'Leary

I like Dinah. She never goes the extra mile – she goes just far enough, and I have a lot of respect for that.

We are all misled and misdirected from time to time. Perhaps there really is no shame in that, as long as we wake up to it before it’s too late to change.

There’s a reason it’s harder for women to approach men than the other way around – when the world tells you your worth is about men desiring you, it’s hard to take it when they don’t, and we’re scared to be rejected.

I think we’re in one of those sliding-doors moments. Balancing on the edge of a decision we won’t be able to unmake. I am struggling to remember why I shouldn’t lean across the poker cards and pull her down into a kiss

How did you get from strangers to this, where you’re like one person split in two?

‘Lucas,’ she says, softly now. ‘You can relax. It’s just me.’ It’s just me. Like she isn’t fucking everything.