Jim didn’t know how she did it, how Pamela Beesley could worm her way straight back into his half-broken heart and crush whatever little there was left. But she did. She could. She had.

They’d laughed together, joking about her famous dance moves. He caught her staring at him on the dance floor with Karen, jealousy and pain in her eyes. And that irrepressible hope seeped in, reminding him that there might always be a chance between them. Until he felt like someone had run him over with a bulldozer as he watched her walk out of the wedding, hand in hand, with Roy.

He hated himself at first, punishing himself that his first instinct was to chase after them and drag her away. Then he hated Roy, for using her vulnerability about a wedding that should have been hers and Roy’s against her. But in the end, he tried to hate her. Hate her for not seeing that Roy would never be worth it, and that he would always, always love her more.

But hate was never enough. It never satisfied him and inevitably, he accepted his fate and watched her walk away one last time.