I Left the “Nice Guy” After He Forgot Our Dog’s Lifeline

mouth, and for a second I saw the old script loading.

You’re overreacting.
You’re too intense.
You’re making me the bad guy.

But he swallowed it, because he’d realized something.

The audience wasn’t here.

The performance wasn’t working.

“So what?” he said, voice small. “You’re really doing this?”

I looked past him at his car, the flowers, the neatly pressed continue reading …