Lou was glad this wasn’t a date. That they were just hanging out and getting to know each other better. When Lou went on a date, she looked for signs of the other woman being a suitable mother. Even though she knew she was getting way ahead of herself when she did, that was one of her criteria. If this had been an actual date with Mia, she would seriously need to consider the possibility of not going on a second one because of what Mia had just said. She was clearly afraid to commit, and therefore didn’t stand a chance against Lou’s scrutiny.

“Why do you hold back?” Lou had to ask.

“I may appear all confident and rid of my past and all of that, but that is exactly because I never disclose certain parts of me. You’d be surprised to find out how many women take it as a personal affront when you refuse to bare your entire soul to them. Complete honesty is a big thing in a relationship, or so it would appear.”

It looked as though Mia was deflating right in front of Lou’s eyes. “Are you referring to the bullying? To your father?”

“Bingo.” Mia’s voice was but a whisper.

“You’ve never told anyone?” Lou’s eyes grew wide.

“It’s not exactly a good sales pitch when you’re trying to seduce someone.”

“No, of course not, but afterward, when a relationship deepens, there’s time to disclose the more unsavory parts of the past. We all have them. None of us are perfect and we all need forgiveness for something. If not from someone else, then at least from ourselves.” The fact that Mia had never addressed her past with anyone made Lou believe she hadn’t forgiven herself at all, despite sometimes hinting at it—and appearing very together about it all most of the time.

“It’s how things are,” Mia said, then fell silent for a few seconds.

Lou kept quiet in order to let Mia gather her thoughts and perhaps talk about what she had never talked about with any of her exes.

“Micky is the only person I talked to about it in all these years, and that’s only because of you.” Mia’s voice broke. “I would never have confided in her if you hadn’t told me who you were.”

It was sounding as if Mia had needed Lou to turn up in her life. Even though Lou was convinced that, in the comparison of their suffering, she was and would always be the clear winner. The victim. The damaged party. The wronged one.

But now, she sat next to Mia in her tiny flat, and another layer of Mia’s bravado was stripped away. Mia had essentially told Lou how lonely she was—how lonely she made herself— and Lou wasn’t so sure about her superior level of suffering anymore.