BITTERSWEET - CHAPTER ONE
Esi My name is Esi Harper. Well, it’s Esidora Maelyn Harper, to be more specific. Over the years I’ve learned to be less specific and just sort of gloss over things. Like when people ask me what my mother does, I say, ‘she owns a quaint little gift shop downtown’. Or, when they want to know about my father, ‘he died in the line of duty’. When they ask about my job, ‘I’m a grief counselor’. Those answers are sufficient in satisfying most curiosities, and generally spare people the details they sometimes aren’t equipped to handle. Like my name. What a fucking mouthful. So, it was clear to me I’d found my match, when I came face to face with the man I was meant to marry and he introduced himself not as Jonathan James Carter, as was his name, specifically, but rather, simply said, ‘Carter’. In the seven years we’ve known each other, the only time we’ve ever called one another our entire names was earlier this morning when we exchanged our vows, w