Page 13 of A Solid Guide to Surviving a Situationship

She nodded. “Trauma lives in the body, you know. Not just in our minds.”

“From which podcast is that?” I asked, almost laughing.

“No, this one’s from therapy,” she said, shaking her head. “Think about it. When you were talking about Victor earlier, what happened?”

I thought of it for a second.

“I got tense?”

“Exactly. Your shoulders came up. Your breathing got shallow.”

I hadn’t even noticed.

“Your body locked up like you were bracing for something,” she continued. “That’s not logic, James. That’s muscle memory.”

The guy behind the counter slid our smoothies toward us.

Mel handed me mine.

“So do I just keep working out to forget him?” I asked.

“Move,” she corrected. “Run. Lift. Dance. Scream into a pillow. Whatever.”

“That’s your medical advice?”

“Quite literally.” She took a sip of her smoothie. “You process feelings with your mind, but you release them with your body.”

I frowned slightly.

“The point is,” she said, tapping my shoulder, “your body has to let it out somehow.”

I took a sip. The drink tasted sweeter than I expected.

“That’s why people say they feel better after a workout,” she continued. “They’re not just burning calories. They’re shaking loose feelings. It’s all chemical.”

I leaned back against the counter, considering that.

Three months of late-night calls.

Three months of waiting for his texts.

Three months of believing someone meant the things they said.

Maybe that didn’t just live in my head. Maybe it lived somewhere else too. In my chest. In my shoulders. In the way I still braced myself whenever his name crossed my mind.

Mel nudged my arm. “Congratulations. You survived your first heartbreak workout.”

I smiled faintly.

“I’ve missed you, you know,” she said, her eyes filled with longing. “We’ve all missed you.”

I swallowed hard.

Because nobody tells you that disappearing hurts the people who stay.

“I know,” I said quietly. “I missed you too… all of you.”

“Don’t ever do that again please,” she said. “Going MIA without any of us knowing where you were or what’s happening with you.”