followed her out and stood, frozen, in the driveway. She threw her bag into the passenger’s side of her car. And then she opened the door on the driver’s side and stood there. “T loved you so much that I thought you were the meaning of my life,” Celia said, crying. “I thought that people were put on earth to find other people, and I was put here to find you. To find you and touch your skin and smell your breath and hear all your thoughts. But I don’t think that’s true anymore.” She wiped her eyes. “Because I don’t want to be meant for someone like you.” The searing pain in my chest felt like water boiling. “You know what? You're right. You aren’t meant for someone like me,” I said finally. “Because I’m willing to do what it takes to make a world for us, and you're too chickenshit. You won’t make the hard decisions; you aren’t willing to do the ugly stuff. And I’ve always known that. But I thought you'd at least have the decency to admit you need someone like me. You need someone who will get her hands dirty to protect you. You want to play like you're all high and mighty all the time. Well, try doing that without someone in the trenches protecting you.” Celia’s face was stoic, frozen. I wasn’t sure she’d heard a single word I'd said. “I guess we aren’t as right for each other as we thought,” she said, and then she got into her car. It wasn’t until that moment, with her hand on the steering wheel, that I realized this was really happening, that this wasn’t just a fight we were having. That this was the fight that would end us. It had all been going so well and had turned so quickly in the other direction, like a hairpin turn off the freeway. “I guess not” was all I could say. It came out like a croak, the vowels cracking. Celia started the car and put it in reverse. “Good-bye, Evelyn,” she said at the very last minute. Then she backed out of my driveway and disappeared down the road. I walked into my house and started cleaning up the puddles of water she’d left. I called a service to come and drain the pool and clean the shards of glass from her iced tea. And then I called Harry.