People always assumed the problem was competition.

Elliot used to think so too.

When he was younger, it seemed logical.

If someone else was smarter.

Funnier.

More successful.

More attractive.

Then of course she would choose them.

That was how choices worked.

At least, that was what he believed.

The theory survived approximately one year.

Then reality ruined it.

Because the strange thing about June was that she never seemed interested in the same people everyone else was.

The men who impressed rooms rarely impressed her.

The loudest person was almost never her favorite.

The most obvious choice was usually ignored entirely.

It took Elliot years to realize something important.

The people June noticed weren't necessarily better.

They were simply different.

Different from him.

That was the part most people misunderstood.

He never felt inferior.

Not really.

At least not in the way they imagined.

It wasn't that he looked at other people and thought:

I wish I were more like them.

It was worse.

He looked at them and thought:

Of course.

The realization arrived quietly one day and never left.

June wasn't choosing between him and someone else.

She never had been.

Because he was never standing in that line.

Not once.

Not for a single second.

The strange thing was that understanding this didn't make him angry.

It made him free.

Because if he had been competing, then losing would have hurt.

But you couldn't lose a race you were never running.

And Elliot had spent years trying to become the answer to a question June wasn't asking.