She fell silent, her gaze dropping to her hands, which were trembling slightly.
"The part I keep thinking about," she whispered, the confession spilling out before she could censor it, "is the wall... and the frustration."
"I was sitting there, so incredibly frustrated, and then you just... you were there."
"You weren't trying to fix me, or manage my emotions, or play the role of the hero."
"You just occupied the space. And suddenly, the frustration was... easier to breathe through."
"It wasn't an excuse, Mike. It was just an explanation of why the walls came down so easily."
"I know," Mike said, and for a split second, the playboy mask slipped, revealing a man who truly saw her.
"I wanted to say it because you deserve the accurate version," she said, looking up, her eyes bright with a sudden, fierce honesty. "Not the version where this was just a mistake that happened to me, like a fever or a storm."
"It was a thing I did. A choice."
