When he was 22 years old, Alexander Murphy turned down a full scholarship to law school in order to move to Key West, Florida and become a bartender. Driven by his lack of direction and fueled by his love of literature, he was able to make that small island paradise his home. He spent his days on boats and on beaches, and his nights working at a bar called The Broken Seahorse. He wasn’t challenged but he was comfortable, and for two years he felt content in his complacency. All of that was before a girl named Iliza D’Ambrosio walked into The Broken Seahorse one summer afternoon and ruined everything.

“From the moment I met her, Iliza reminded me of Key West. One second she could make me feel like I had died and gone to heaven. The very next, she was a hurricane — determined to destroy. On more recent reflection, I wonder if the same cannot be said for all things beautiful in this world…”

Iliza was the plot twist Alex never saw coming and over the course of that summer she would force him to reevaluate, reimagine, and rewrite his story — not always for the better.

“To look in Iliza’s eyes was to see myself in their reflection, and while I was surely scared of what those big blue eyes would see in me, I was far more terrified of what they had to show me."