Don't Ask.

Everyone always asks if you’re “okay.” She hated it. Every time someone new found out what happened they’d call or show up unannounced just to make sure she was “okay.” Frankly, it made her want to vomit. Of course she wasn’t okay, of course it took all of her physical, mental, and emotional strength just to get out of bed, and of course she was still very hurt, and very upset. Then people would always follow the “okay” question with phrases of condolences including but not limited to: “You’re better off without him. He didn’t deserve you. He was always an awful man.” And her favorite: “Well you look great! Considering…” None of it made her feel better, not even after constant repetition of the same things. But because she knew that it made everyone else feel better (and it was actually nice to have company when she was completely honest with herself) she permitted the visits. But the one person who she wanted to tell the most, needed to tell the most, wasn’t any one of the visits.
Tess was in New York, thousands of miles away. And she made sure that she wouldn’t find out about anything that had happened until absolutely necessary. Her baby sister was finally happy. After years of more than just a mere unsatisfying home life, and of trying to figure herself out, she had finally found herself on the right track. She had her career, her fiance, and everything else she had ever wanted. With the wedding just weeks away, the last thing she wanted was to put a damper on what was supposed to be the happiest day of her life.
He was still supposed to be in the wedding, Tess’s special request to have a representative of a “happy couple.” Because she didn’t want anything to ruin her baby sister’s special day, she made damn sure he’d still be there. He owed her this, (among a pretty hefty laundry list of other things she could thing of) at least this much, for certain.
College sweethearts. Except she never really got to finish college since they married so young, and someone had to support the two of them when he was in med school. But she had offered, volunteered. He was the love of her life, her best friend in the world, and so she was completely willing to sacrifice her dreams for his. He was the only man she had ever been with, the father of her children, the only investment she had ever made thinking that it was completely sound. All she kept thinking was, how could he do this to me? Eleven years of marriage, two years of dating, a one year engagement, (a total of fourteen years together) two beautiful children, and nothing to show for it? How the fuck could he do this to me?

Big Cities.

I watch Dawson's Creek for quotes like this:

"In a city like New York where everything is moving all the time at this constant driving pace, it’s like this living organism breathing and changing, and over time your relationship to it becomes like this incredible romance. At first its intoxicating, irresistible then slowly it becomes comfortable and safe, you have this cellular connection to it as if you’ve known each other forever like your oldest happiness. And sometimes you’re on the outs, and sometimes you’re making up. And every now and then you catch yourself in this transcendent moment when you think to yourself , 'Oh my God I’m madly in love with you, and I always will be.'

If only it was that easy to feel that way about a person rather than a beautiful city.

Stay tuned for more fictional entertainment.