Breakup & Healing

My friend Nadia signed her first solo lease at 10:45 on a snowy Saturday in January. I sat next to her in a cramped Denver leasing office. Six weeks earlier, she and her ex Chris had split after four years together. Their old lease had his name listed first. The agent asked if it was … Read more

My friend Priya called me from a laundromat at 4:20 on a hot Sunday in August. Her ex Jordan had just liked a beach photo from 2022. It was the third old photo he had liked that week. Every one of them came from the summer they spent together. She read me the alert out … Read more

My friend Mara texted me from a coffee shop on a Thursday in October. Her coworker had just shown her a photo without thinking first. It was Chris, her ex, with his new girlfriend at a concert. The girl had the same bangs and the same round glasses Mara wears. Mara stared at the photo … Read more

My friend Priya texted me at 4am this past January. She had just woken up from a dream about Jordan. In the dream they were still living in their old apartment. Priya said the dream felt more real than her actual Tuesday. It had been eight months since Jordan moved out for good. She could … Read more

Priya texted me at 7:15 on a Monday, half crying in her kitchen. She had just woken from a dream about Marcus again. She said she almost texted him before she even got out of bed. Her thumb was already hovering over his name in her phone. I have watched this exact moment happen to … Read more

My friend Mara broke up with Jake on a Tuesday night in June. By Thursday morning, half her office already knew. The questions started almost right away, soft and well meaning at first. By week three, they felt like a test she kept failing. Mara told me she counted eleven different versions of the same … Read more

My friend Mara was folding laundry at 9:50 on a Sunday night in March. Her phone buzzed and her ex’s face filled the whole screen. The caption said he had asked and she had said yes. Mara sat down on the floor with one sock still in her hand. She texted me four words: he … Read more

My friend Jenna deleted Marcus from her phone the night she moved his last box to his car. She felt proud for about an hour. Three weeks later she needed to text a plumber. She typed Marcus’s old number by pure muscle memory instead. Her thumb still knew all ten digits even though his name … Read more

My friend Priya heard his door close at 11:40 on a Tuesday night. Tyler still lives four doors down the same hallway. They broke up in March, but neither lease was up until August. Five months of hearing his footsteps outside her own door. She called me the night she saw his car in the … Read more

My friend Nadia texted me from a parking lot in March. It was 4:20 on a Sunday and she was shaking. Theo had just ended things over coffee inside. Nine months together, done in about twenty minutes. Then he said the line that wrecked her week. I still want you in my life, just not … Read more