I shrugged. “Sometime during that night, I went numb,” I admitted. “There’s a point when everything just shuts off and you no longer have to live through it because it doesn’t matter anymore.”

“Come on, I know that can’t be true. Look at how you just broke down,” she insisted.

“I’ve been numb for three years, and only just started to thaw back out.”

“Around the time you saw your husband making headlines with other women?” She questioned.

“Around the time he made me believe it wouldn’t happen, only to have it thrown in my face how wrong I was to believe someone again.”

“Oh, Mina! Does he know about any of this?”

“No, and I don’t want him to. You promised that what I said would stay between us. Please, don’t make me regret telling you.”

“You will never regret telling me, I swear it.”

For some strange reason, I believed her. Luna, a woman I had only met a day ago, had somehow broken through the wall I’d built around myself to keep my heart safe. We sat there for a few more minutes, as I collected myself and used my beach towel to wipe away the heartache that leaked from me in the form of tears.

“It’s really a shame that you have to get back for school. I think you could use some more time on the beach, it obviously did you some good if you’ve kept all of that bottled up for three years.”

“I don’t think it was just being at the beach that made me unleash. Thanks for listening,” I managed to get out as we packed up and headed back to our room.

“Anytime, and I mean that. Even if you divorce Tucker, and never speak to him and my brother again, I hope that we can remain friends. I think we could both use someone to trust who knows what it’s like to be betrayed.”

“Speaking of, it sounds like you owe me a story too.”

“Oh, I definitely do, and you’ll hear it. We’re going to call this your weekend of release, mine will come another time.”

“So, you’re saying we need to start planning another beach weekend?” We both laughed at the suggestion.

“Well, if a girl has to relive some shit, at least she can do it in paradise, right?”

“Obviously,” I told her. We managed to get everything packed up for our trip back to Atlanta. There was definitely a part of me that did not want to go back there. I thought about heading to Middleton again, which was the suburb just outside of Atlanta where my parents lived. If I went back there, I would have to answer questions about why, and I really didn’t want to do that.

“Are you trying to figure out where to go from here?”

“Am I that obvious?”

“Nah, I just thought about inviting you to come stay with me so you could hide out a little longer. The problem with that is Wes knows that we met, and he will assume I offered.”