Kate Chisman

“The scratching came from the attic. At night, when Rory turned out the light I would lie awake and wait for it to skit, skit, skit lightly across the floorboards above our heads and down behind the water pipes.”

“Girls spilled drinks down their dresses and flicked their hair. Wishing anyone, maybe even you, would notice them... You were someone to me.”

“The chandelier was wearing on its rubber support and the crack at the side of the ceiling hold was getting bigger. “One day that’s going to fall on us and spear you through the heart,” he said. I turned to kiss him on the shoulder and closed my eyes.”

“I turned to him and he reached for my hand. It would have been easier to walk away. But the wind still blew around us and the house still stood.”

“I watched you try on suits in Hugo Boss.‘For the big job,’ you said. And I laughed, because I knew I would never see it. I’d never get up and watch you put it on and walk out of the door. I would never be the one that you came home to.”

“In the dark behind the glare of the television, like a mannequin behind it, I could see a silhouette and it wasn’t moving. It was maybe six foot high with its shoulders hunched and I blinked to make sure it was real. The TV fuzzed grey and white and black and I had a lump in my throat that I couldn’t swallow away. “Rory” I whispered. Clawing out gently beneath the duvet cover, reaching for his hand. But I couldn’t find it. And he didn’t answer.”

“In the morning, that moment, when I knew it was you. When I could feel you breathing and we opened our eyes at the exact same time.”

“These were the things we would never notice were missing.”

“You wanted a wife but I wasstill a girl.”

“We ruined each other by being together. We destroyed each other’s dreams.”

“The diamonds glinted under the glare of the chandelier and they looked like a thousand spider eyes”

“I cried for all of those things that should have just been for us...”

“You talked over the tour guide who pointed to houses and windows. Showing us where people had lived and died and other people now stayed in their place. Just like a broken heart." - Adieu”