5:43pm. I locked my phone and tossed it on the bed. I’m not going to check again. For two months you and I had been apart—how could the final minutes feel so torturous? But the words of your last text had strapped my heart into a pillory and left it exposed to the unrelenting whip of suspense. “Be ready for me.” Was I ready? Calm, controlled breathing couldn’t still that whip as I approached the bedroom mirror for the hun...

Three spokes of a Mercedes Benz emblem sat etched into leather before my eyes. I didn’t even see it, for the same reason that my knuckles had turned a ghostly white as my grip burrowed deeper into the steering wheel. I shouldn’t be here. I shouldn’t be doing this... A glance up at my surroundings only made the anxiety spill out of my chest and plummet like a cruel anvil into my stomach. I had poured hours upon hours of re...