Happier Than She's Ever Been... by Menna van Praag

man who had adored her for a few brief blissful months, then left her six months after she’d become needy and clingy and ever-so-slightly obsessed. The man for whom she had given up her sense of self, the reason she had vowed never to do it again. Indeed the man who was a major reason why she’d screwed things up so spectacularly with Ben.
    May had fantasised about this moment for years. Since the day he’d walked out, since she’d self-published her book, she dreamt that one day it might become a bestseller and Jake would see it in a window.
    He would read it and realise he’d made a hideous, horrible mistake. He’d see how much everyone else adored and admired her, and he’d come running. Just as she still wished her father would.
    And now here he was, standing three feet in front of her. She stared at him. He stepped forward, holding her book, smiling the dazzling smile that had always made her melt. In the next few seconds the last few months of their relationship flashed through her mind: the nights when she’d crept out of bed, reading his phone messages in the dark, finding nothing but new depths of self-loathing and despair she never imagined she’d reach. The days she’d pursued him, calling far too often, trying to spice things up, to delve deeper into him, chasing him – the more he pulled away until he started being cruel. Staying close to him no matter what he did or how much it hurt. Until finally, he left her.
    May’s breath caught in her throat and, unable to speak, she waited to see what Jake would do next.
    â€˜Hi,’ he said, still grinning. ‘I’m hoping you might sign my book.’
    â€˜Yes of course.’ May composed herself and held his gaze. ‘Do you want a dedication?’
    â€˜Please.’
    â€˜Name?’
    â€˜Oh, don’t tell me I meant so little to you, Maya. It’d break my heart.’
    May took the book from him and scribbled his name. Silky smooth words still tripped off his tongue so easily, as seductive as chocolate caramels. She shivered a little. I thought , she wanted to say, that it was I who meant so little to you.
    â€˜It’s May now,’ she said. ‘I go by May.’
    â€˜Oh,’ he said, ‘but on your book –’
    â€˜Well, to my friends.’ She handed him back the book, and Jake took it as though she’d just given him the crown jewels.
    â€˜Thank you,’ he said softly, ‘for still calling me your friend.’
    May gave a slight shrug, glancing towards the long queue of people behind him, some of them looking pointedly at their watches and glaring at Jake for making them wait.
    â€˜Well,’ she said, ‘I guess I’d better get on.’
    Jake nodded. ‘Yeah, right, of course. But, please, let me take you out for dinner tonight. If you don’t have plans, fabulous famous person that you are now. Or if you do, break them.’ And there was that smile again. The one that seemed to reach right down into May’s chest and tug at her heart. She hadn’t seen him for so long, hadn’t loved him for even longer, but his smile still had that effect on her. May willed herself to say no, to lie, to dismiss him, to say she never wanted to see him again.
    But instead she said, ‘Okay, when I’m done here, why don’t I meet you at the bar across the street?’
    Jake nodded again, flashed her one last smile and was gone.

    May didn’t like bars, but she knew Jake did. And she supposed it was better than the intimacy of a restaurant booth or, worse still, her hotel room. When she first walked inside she couldn’t see him. She’d been half hoping he wouldn’t be there, but, now that he wasn’t, the disappointment quickened her pulse, the familiar sense of rejection tasted like copper in her mouth. She turned to go.
    â€˜Maya, May, wait!’
    She glanced back to see Jake hurrying towards her, two glasses