Heart Note 11: Sudden break up in summer

<p>The summer breakup almost never comes out of nowhere. It has a start date, usually months earlier, in a November nobody talked about.</p><p>This Heart Note is about the gap between knowing a relationship is over and finding the words for it: </p><p>- why the person leaving often turns suddenly, painfully polite;</p><p>- why waiting can be compassion and avoidance at the same time; </p><p>- and why summer, with the commute, the deadlines and the routine stripped away, leaves nothing left to hide behind.</p><p>For the one who ended it, you weren&#39;t a coward. For the one who never saw it coming, you weren&#39;t stupid. </p><p>There&#39;s a far better point to reflect on: &quot;what should I have done differently?</p>