Image provided by Sue Vincent for her thursday photo prompt.

The autumn and winter had passed in a fog of misery. Alternating between sullen moping and violent rages against his callousness, I had tried unsuccessfully to forget. But I couldn’t. I had been so sure he was the one, so certain! His eyes still looked into mine, guileless and full of what I had taken to be love. He gazed at me while I slept, followed me through my dreams, appeared in complete strangers crossed in the street. And nothing in that expression said low, lying, cheating skunk. He had had to leave. He wanted me to join him, he’d said. We arranged to meet before he left, to make our plans for when and how, on the edge of the woods, by the style on the path that led to…

The memory came back sharp and clear. I could…