The two girls hugged again, and Steven, overcome with emotion, wrapped his arms around his two favorite girls. Anna was crying now, but her tears were joyous. For the first time in a very long time she felt grateful for the people around her. She had gone through the unimaginable and was still crawling through the shit, but she now had hope that one day, eventually, she’d crawl out the other side and be free again. She excused herself to go to the ladies’ room and sat for a while in the stall drying her eyes. As she stood up to leave the stall, she stopped at the sound of some girls talking at the mirrors.

“Can you believe she showed her face here? If I were her, I’d have left town. She deserves everything she got…”

“All dressed up like a lady, but still a two-timing whore, just like her mother. Did you hear? They’re actually separated and the mom’s living in Greenwich alone.”

“Did you see? Poor Alexander’s here with Eleanor. He must hate himself for all the years he wasted on that half-breed piece of trash.”

Anna waited until the bathroom emptied out before she left. She felt awful but was too stunned to cry. She exited the stall, washed her hands, and looked at herself in the mirror for a long time. She didn’t like what she saw, and she knew what she had to do. She walked out of the bathroom straight into Alexander, who was leaning up against the wall waiting for her.

“Hey” was all she managed to get out in her surprise. She noticed his eyes looked glassy and wondered if he was feeling all right.

“Are you okay?” he asked before she could ask him.

Anna was about to say she was fine, but that would have been a lie. “Not really,” she admitted.

“Yeah, I can imagine,” he replied. “Actually, I can’t.”

Anna waited for him to say more, but he didn’t. She wasn’t sure what he wanted from her and she didn’t know if she wanted to know. “Is there something you wanted to ask me?”

“Did you ever love me?” He hated himself for being pathetic, but it was something he desperately wanted to know. Even though he wasn’t in that much pain anymore, he was still taking Percocet. And though his doctor said it was time he weaned himself off them, he hadn’t been able to. He still felt pain every day, but perhaps it wasn’t in his leg, perhaps it was his pride. He couldn’t stop feeling like a wounded animal over Anna leaving him for another. Some OG he turned out to be. Over and over he replayed their relationship in his head, always regretful over things he should have done differently.