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Alessia said she wasn’t looking for anything serious. She said she just wanted to be friends.

How could that be? I dared to entertain the question. When I had held her in my arms only a week before. When she had curled up into my chest, as I ran my fingers along her back searchingly. When I had gone out on a whim and decided to secede myself to being the man in our relationship. When I had admitted to myself in a state of weakness, or perhaps, in a state of emboldened vulnerability that I wanted to take care of her. That I wanted to make her happy. Make her smile.