I love this. This feels like the beginning of something more, the life and relationship I want to hear told by this woman because of the smart, simple, specific, and well written words from Perez. I hope this turns into more - but for now it is a great monologue for those looking for one.

There’s a great narrative irony in this piece: the narrator has a one-sided conversation with the dead that also serves as a eulogy to the living. It’s a testament to how love changes us, not for better or worse necessarily (as the speaker doesn’t regret who she was before) but simply because that’s what love does. So much is packed elegantly and organically in this paragraph. Perez gives as fully realized human, their complicated relationship, and immerses us in the setting in a few lines. It’s a miracle in a small space.