I was in the center.
Exhausted.
Too thin.
Smiling anyway.
I had been so young.
For years I believed I had failed by eventually giving up on convincing Adrian.
Now I understood something.
I had been surviving.
There is a difference.
The next person I called was my younger sister.
She answered:
“What happened?”
“How do you know something happened?”
“You called after nine.”
I forwarded Adrian’s invitation.
She read it.