I miss it.

The parties, the gala, the recognition. I miss the taste of champagne on my tongue and the smell of fresh money from the ATM. I miss people scrambling to make me happy and getting favors whenever I wished.

They say _“__Rome didn__’__t fall in a day.__”_

But I think it sure did. My Rome, my life, collapsed and crumpled up into a shriveled mess of flesh and bone, in less than a day.

Those days of the past, are long, long gone.

I miss it.

But it’s **gone.**