My phone slipped between my girlfriend Claire\u2019s couch cushions while she was getting ready for dinner.<\/p>\n
When I reached for it, I pulled out an old photograph.<\/p>\n
And there I was.<\/p>\n
Eight years old, sitting beside a girl named Nora at a summer reading club.<\/p>\n
I had never given Claire that photo.<\/p>\n
Then I turned it over.<\/p>\n
In Claire\u2019s handwriting were the words: \u201cFound Ethan today. Tell him.\u201d<\/p>\n
The date was the exact day we matched on Tinder.<\/p>\n
Claire finally admitted the truth.<\/p>\n
Nora had been her younger half-sister\u2014and my childhood friend.<\/p>\n
She had recognized me immediately when she saw my dating profile.<\/p>\n
Nora had suffered from a chronic illness and died months after that summer. Claire originally planned to meet me once, tell me what happened, and thank me for being kind to her sister.<\/p>\n
But one coffee became another.<\/p>\n
Then another date.<\/p>\n
Then six months together.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat if Nora never existed?\u201d I asked. \u201cWould you have chosen me?\u201d<\/p>\n
Claire hesitated.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n
That answer hurt.<\/p>\n
But she admitted something else: Nora may have brought her to the first coffee, but she wasn\u2019t the reason Claire stayed.<\/p>\n
I still felt betrayed that she had hidden the truth.<\/p>\n
Days later, I returned to the library where Nora and I had met.<\/p>\n
I texted Claire.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m here if you want to come.\u201d<\/p>\n
Twenty minutes later, she sat beside me.<\/p>\n
This time, she didn\u2019t hide anything.<\/p>\n
And I finally started remembering Nora.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My phone slipped between my girlfriend Claire\u2019s couch cushions while she was getting ready for dinner. When I reached for it, I pulled out an old photograph. And there I was. Eight years old, sitting beside a girl named Nora at a summer reading club. I had never given Claire that photo. Then I turned …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9955,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9954"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9954\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9956,"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9954\/revisions\/9956"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/storypulls.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}