Heart Note 11: Sudden break up in summer

The summer breakup almost never comes out of nowhere. It has a start date, usually months earlier, in a November nobody talked about.This Heart Note is about the gap between knowing a relationship is over and finding the words for it: - why the person leaving often turns suddenly, painfully polite;- why waiting can be compassion and avoidance at the same time; - and why summer, with the commute, the deadlines and the routine stripped away, leaves nothing left to hide behind.For the one who ended it, you weren't a coward. For the one who never saw it coming, you weren't stupid. There's a far better point to reflect on: "what should I have done differently?