Before the snow. Before the Alps. Before they even make it to Switzerland—Coco nearly leaves.
This interlude in Afterglow falls between chapters, but it lands like a punch. Ginger and Coco are en route to the next leg of their whirlwind romance—train tickets in hand, mountains waiting—but one cold morning, Coco slips out of the cabin alone.
What follows is not a breakup. Not exactly. It’s something quieter: a reckoning. A moment on a frosted train platform where words become confessions and staying becomes a choice, not a given. Coco lays bare the fear beneath her wildness—the fear of being held, not just wanted. Of becoming real in someone else’s life.
She doesn’t promise forever. But in the chill before the train arrives, she does something braver.
She chooses tomorrow.
Here's the Interlude: The Almost Goodbye
Eric