She wants to know his secret. He hasn’t decided what it is yet. She looks into his eyes deeply. Longingly. Knowing. Believing that if she could just crack through this one last barrier, there would be nothing stopping them from the bliss of eternal togetherness. Yet, although he would love nothing more than to give her what she desires. Everything she desires. He is frozen. Paralyzed. Trapped under the rubble of a life lived with so much guilt and shame that he no longer even know what it was he was hiding in the first place. The thing just below the surface. Visible through his actions and words to all who take the time to care for him. It’s simply a part of him now. Like a vestigial organ with no nerve endings that has grown cancerous, he can’t even feel its toxic presence anymore. If he wishes for his search to continue. The search to find the love that’s standing right in front of him. The search for himself. He’ll have to craft a scalpel with his heart and use it to remove the dead tissue. The thing that no longer serves him. And lay it bare before her.