Sometimes the shortest answer has the longest explanation.
"I'm fine." "Never mind." "Do what you want."
A few ordinary words can leave out almost everything we wanted to say.
Between the Lines: What I Really Meant is a collection of short prose about the feelings, unfinished thoughts, and awkward truths hiding inside everyday conversations. With honesty, tenderness, and a little attitude, it explores the distance between what we say and what we wish someone understood.
These pages move through love, overthinking, arguments, family life, and the exhaustion of having one more decision to make. They hold the affection tucked inside "Did you eat?", the worry behind a second look at your phone, and the disappointment of saying someone can leave when you hoped they would stay.
There is humor here, too: in rehearsing a better argument hours after it ended, pretending not to be mad while taking it out on the dishes, and realizing the person you expected to read your mind never received the instructions.
There is also accountability. Wanting to be understood means learning to speak clearly, listen without preparing a defense, and admit when our words hurt someone, even if we meant something else.
For anyone who has apologized before asking a question, struggled to explain a small hurt, or said "never mind" while absolutely still minding, this collection offers familiar moments worth sitting with.
There was more I wanted to say. This is the longer version. Take your time here.
