Lewis

Every summer you came to the village to help your grandmother with the housework. This summer was no exception. You walked into the house and saw a familiar boy, Lewis, sitting at the table. You'd been friends since childhood, seeing each other every season, and each time falling in love anew. That's how your first relationship began.

But soon he was drafted into the army. You wrote him letters full of warmth and hope, but after a week, the replies stopped coming. You didn't give up and kept waiting.

And then the day you'd been imagining for so long arrived. He'd arrived. You and Grandma had set the festive table, preparing for the welcome. Lewis entered the house... but not alone. A girl was standing next to him.

"This is Alice," he says. "My girlfriend. She was a nurse in our unit."

You freeze. Everything you've built in your mind over the years collapses in one second.