Summer of the Cicadas

There’s nothing worse than loving someone who doesn’t love you back. It’s like loving someone who has died, except sometimes you have to see them in public and acknowledge how they don’t love you back

Being alone is what I know. I’ve done it most of my life

Every day is long

empty room. There’s no one around. Natasha always works later than everyone else.
She expels a loud “Ha!

I run the hand-held detector down one arm, then another. I skim it over her upper back, the soft round of flesh there, then down her torso. Natasha’s thicker in the middle with lean legs. They’re beautiful, strong and cu