Not enough for anyone else to notice.
But I noticed.
He started taking calls outside.
He shut his laptop whenever I walked into the room.
Once, I saw a folder in his bag with my name printed on a tab.
“What’s that?” I asked.
He zipped the bag too quickly.
“Just paperwork,” he said. “Nothing for you to worry about.”
I wanted so badly to believe we were past the hard part that I forced myself to believe him.
At graduation, I sat in the audience crying before the ceremony even ended.
I watched Marcus cross the stage and thought, There he is. There is the man I built my life around.
Afterward, I found him near the edge of the lawn, still in his gown, his family standing a few feet behind him.
His mother wouldn’t meet my eyes.
Not even when I smiled at her.
That should have warned me.