My first thought was that we had been robbed, but as I looked around, I realized that the only things missing were Tyler’s. The afghan my grandmother had given me on the day of my high school graduation was folded neatly on the floor by the rug I’d found at the flea market just a week earlier.

“Cara?”

“Yeah?” I choked out.

“There’s a note.”

When I looked up, Melissa was holding a handwritten note in Tyler’s familiar angular penmanship. He’d written it on the back of a cable bill, obviously in a hurry.

Cara,

The apartment is paid for through June of next year.

I’m truly sorry.

Tyler

“He left,” I said, still not believing the words as they fell from my lips.

“Well, I figured that much out for myself. The note wasn’t very long. Are you going to stay?”

I looked around, remembering the brief time I’d spent in this place. I’d only lived here for a couple of short months, barely enough time to even consider it a home. But, in those short few weeks, I’d laughed with Tyler, made love to him, and hoped for a future with the one man I’d thought would be with me until the end.

Was it enough to haunt me if I stayed?

“I don’t know,” I answered honestly. “Should I?”

Her footfalls were audible against the aged wood as she took a look around the small apartment. It wasn’t much. A small front room made up what we’d considered the living room, and the kitchen could barely hold both of us, but we’d made it work. The bedroom was big enough to hold a bed and basically nothing more. I’d shoved as many clothes into the closet as I could, and the rest had gone into storage bins under the bed.

It had been a hard adjustment, but I’d done it. It wasn’t the ideal life I’d pictured when I watched Friends or Sex in the City reruns, but it was mine. I’d thought it would be something Tyler and I would share together, but I could see now that it would be my adventure alone.

If I still wanted it.

“I think it’s a great place—or at least, it could be if you allowed it to be. Want some help?” she asked, taking another glance.

“Absolutely,” I said.

“Great. Let’s get started.”

I was slowly starting to realize that life was never what you intended, but as my best friend and I went from Goodwill to every thrift store we could find to decorate my first apartment, I discovered this unpredictable new life had left me a little scarred and perhaps a tad bitter, but also full of hope.

And that was the most beautiful thing of all.

Chapter Seventeen

I’d never been a lonely person.