The Way to Love a Girl

"It wasn’t his fault. For himself, I liked him, but relationships can’t run one way. People have to take a shine to each other, shed their own light, make a glow in the middle that’s larger than either alone. Once I knew someone bright. I thought I knew her. “Celia,” I say softly, and think of a girl…"

A young woman returns to her hometown after a failed love affair. Another young woman resurfaces after a mysterious absence. Their reunion sparks changes in both their lives, challenging their relationships—friends, lovers, and parents—and forcing them to commit to new meanings of family, love, and home.

Leigh has just returned from Greece after a difficult choice to break away from her sweet but somehow passionless romance. Met at the airport by an old friend, she is thrown unsuspecting into a reunion she has been craving for five years. Celia is back. Their schoolgirl friendship collapsed when Celia disappeared without a word and Leigh was left to cope with the implications. Now, suppressed remnants of desire, love, grief, and guilt reignite for both of them and the consequences spin quickly out of control. This lyrical novella explores the nature of love and the losses that come from choosing to place your heart. Not just a story of rejection, it also celebrates the joy and homecoming that eventually comes from embracing one’s authentic self.