When I finally told Jamie about Matteo’s messages, she didn’t say “Leave him.” She said: “When did you stop believing you deserve a love that doesn’t make you smaller?”
I typed: “I hope you do change. For the next girl. But my diary has already written a different ending.”
That was the first night I thought about leaving. Enter Jamie. Not a lover—not yet. Jamie is my best friend from college. She runs a small bookshop in Quezon City and has never apologized for taking up space. She is plus-sized, loud, opinionated, and married to a woman named Dina who paints murals of anitos (ancestral spirits). They have been together for nine years.