When Forbidden Feels This Good
I felt it move through my chest and settle, and despite everything, despite the empty driveway and the cold space in the bed and the two weeks stretching out in front of me like a sentence, I smiled.
It started small, just the corners of my mouth, involuntary, the body responding to something the mind was still processing. Then it grew, became something real, a genuine smile in an otherwise very difficult morning, and I let it happen because it felt like a small act of defiance against everything that was trying to make this day heavy.
"Is there anything you'd like me to do for you, ma'am?"
Rose's voice again, the same gentle patience, as if she had all the time in the world and was not inco