When Loyalty Hurts: A Goodbye I Never Got I wasn’t prepared to lose Mikey like this. He didn’t die. He just… disappeared. Turned off his phone. Didn’t show up for work Saturday. No call. No warning. Just gone . He finally texted Sunday . Said he quit. That he’d been planning it for two weeks. But I didn’t know. Not me. Not any of us at work. The customers knew, though. Let that sink in. I thought he was one of my safe people. One of the few I could unmask around. I laid my soul bare with him—shared things I don’t tell just anyone. I don’t open up easy, and when I do, it’s not halfway. It’s all or nothing. And with Mikey, I gave it all. Now I’m sitting here, wondering why everyone I open up to eventually leaves. It’s not just sad. It’s grief. It’s confusion. It’s betrayal. And yeah—my eyes are leaking. That’s how my body processes this kind of thing. I guess it’s funny in a way. I wasn’t expecting a plot twist like this at work. But here we ...