“Unrequited love had been all I was capable of. It gave me all the emotional jolts of real love, without ever having to drown myself in intimacy. Now, I realised, that drama had been reversed. Now, I drew people in and then retreated. Their hearts broke and I watched from the sidelines, guilty and ashamed, but with all the satisfaction of knowing I was deeply loved, while never having to make any of it real.”
