Betrayal

           Betrayal is a red dress.

        Strapless, it spills down your body like ruby paint, down to your ankles. The stone floor beneath our feet radiates cold.

        Can you relate?

         You smile at me. I couldn't see it, but I felt the temperature drop. Laugh, touch your earrings absently. It was the only one of my gifts that you actually kept.

Someone is talking to me. I only barely register, I’m running on autopilot. She says something, I laugh.

It must have not been right, because she’s saying goodbye, walking away.

I turn back to you. Was I always this cold?