You Alone?

<p><strong style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>On these pages you'll find the word-for-word text message thread between me and a man I met on a dating app one summer. It became a relationship that changed my life. He was someone who turned my life around at the exact right moment and in the exact way I needed.</strong></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>A few months before I met Nic my then-husband moved several states away from me and my children without notice. Not only did he move away but he also took all of our belongings with him. He even changed our address without telling me.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>The betrayal loss and fear I felt after that incident was almost too much to bear. I was a shell of my former self. Never before have I felt such a deep and visceral sense of hurt and shock as I did then.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>A few months after the crippling betrayal I moved into my own apartment and started my life over.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Once the divorce was in motion I began scrolling on a dating app. The excitement of having a list of available men was enthralling. I was in search of a passion that I had been dreaming about for years - even while married to my husband.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>I knew I wasn't looking for a boyfriend or most certainly a new husband. I had another agenda. Although I wasn't sure how to frame my agenda or explain it to someone else.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>I also knew I didn't want a one-night stand or to sleep around with a bunch of men.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>None of that felt right to me.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Then along came Nic.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Nic was like no one I had ever met. He was truly enthralled with me and I was with him. We matched on so many levels but yet came from vastly different backgrounds.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>You'll read throughout the book that Nic often seemed to know just what to say to me and even </span><em style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>when</em><span style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> to say it.</span></p><p></p><p><strong style=background-color: rgba(0 0 0 0); color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>As the saying goes people come into your life for a reason a season or a lifetime. Nic and I found each other for a mutually beneficial reason in a particularly traumatic season and for a lifetime.</strong></p><p></p>