7. Miles

This is Miles. You were always so sure he was using you, but you were never actually quite clear about what it was you brought to the table. Not that you weren't at the peak of your confidence then — the new job and the great haircut and for once having a quick answer when the bartender asks what you're drinking — but he just never seemed to need anything you could provide. Silence more than conversation, space more than intimacy. For two weeks it was twenty-two hours a day of steely distance, an hour at the bistro where you tried to crack his reserve(meeting with little more than two-syllable answers, red wine stains, and a lingering sense that the part in your hair could be better), and then an hour of the most sullen, angry sex you've ever had. And right in the middle, or right at the beginning, or right at the end, these lightning flashes of the most crushing, vulnerable tenderness that made everything — you, him, the stupid bistro, your stupid hair — completely worth it.

(Image: ELC Clothing)