I'm going to pretend
that you were cold to me today
because you were afraid
after spending most of the day together
yesterday, for the first time in a while,
that my smile was going
to catch your attention
the same way it did the first time
and that you'd started
to notice me
in the same way you did
before we fell in love.

(Before we fell out of love.)

I'm going to pretend
that you didn't look me in the eyes
because you didn't want
to see me the way you used to
and were trying to
avoid that situation
because you didn't want either of us
to end up being hurt again.

I'm going to pretend
that facts aren't facts.
That neither of us
have found other people
and we were both
trying to move on.
That you were on the other side of town,
thinking about me like I think about you,
and that falling back was something
you were afraid could end in
something like disaster—
and that's why
you were cold to me today.

Because I wanted to be equally
cold to you,
and it was because of all those reasons
I'm going to pretend you had, too.