“People just don’t commit to each other after just meeting them, chemistry or not,” she said, trying to keep the tremble from her voice that betrayed her anxiety. No, anxiety was too tame a word. She became anxious when she was short on cash and didn’t know how she was going to pay her rent and bills. This wasn’t anxiety. This was terror. She was terrified of Malcolm and what being in a relationship with him could potentially mean. She had loved Walter, but she’d never felt this all-consuming passion when she was in his presence. She’d felt lukewarm, compared to how she felt when she was around Malcolm. So if she pursued this to see where it led, if… when it didn’t work out, she’d be devastated. “How would this even work? I refuse to be in another relationship with a controlling prick, and
