Angelaboutme -

The cement worked. For a decade, it worked beautifully.

Lena felt something crack inside her chest—not a rib, but something older, deeper. The cement she had spent two decades pouring around her heart was developing a hairline fracture. angelaboutme

“You don’t even like cats. You’re allergic. I had to give you a two-hour sneezing fit just to remind you that you’re mortal.” Margo leaned forward, her expression softening. “Look, I know this is a lot. But you’re not alone, Lena. You never were.” The cement worked

Margo still showed up, though not every day. Sometimes she appeared on the fire escape outside Lena’s new apartment, eating cheese puffs and watching the stars. Sometimes she appeared in dreams—quiet dreams, the kind where you sit on a park bench and watch the leaves fall and feel, for once, that everything might be okay. The cement she had spent two decades pouring

And for the first time in her life, Lena smiled and said it aloud, just to see how it felt: