In my experience, the handsome ones thought they were God’s gift to womankind, and that it was their moral duty to spread themselves far and wide.
I fancy you, he whispered. I fancy you a whole lot.
It’s always about you, Jonah. It’s always been about you. The world will react the way the world will react. That’s not your business. You have faith in your own worth and the world won’t matter.
It’s meant to strip you bare in order to heal. Be brave enough not to fight it. Surrender, my boy. Let go. For just once, have the courage to let go.
It’s just that every story of woe and tragedy throughout history starts out with those exact same three words. ‘There’s this girl.
It had to be one of the worst hurts in the entire world – being embarrassed by someone who was meant to protect you, not humiliate you.
But she made me want to become the man she deserved. She made me braver, and stronger. Because of her, I wanted to be the best version of myself. And that, I think, is what love does, if it’s really love.
I barely heard someone behind me at the bar say, “Are they fighting or having a book club?” And a different person answered, “I’m unclear. Looks like foreplay to me.” We both ignored them.
Guilt at turning a blind eye, at participating, even by inaction, in something he’d innately known was wrong.
Love makes a place for itself even if there isn’t one, Mama,” she said quietly. “Love carves into the hardest of places.
He was no savage. Far from it. He was the one who had been savaged by cruelty and evil.
I want the wolf,” she said softly. “I want you. I don’t need you to hold back.
I felt broken, humiliated, confused, and helpless. And it didn’t help that I knew I was barely tolerable to look at.
All human wisdom is contained in these two words – wait and hope.
Archer took my hand in his for a brief second and then let it go, saying, I’m sorry. I had heard those words before, but looking at him in that moment, I knew they had never held as much weight as they did when Archer spoke them.
I whispered against his throat, “You’re beautiful everywhere, Archer.” He let out a breath and leaned his head back very, very slightly, giving me more access, baring his scar to me, a beautiful act of trust.
Because the shoe looks unassuming. No one expects the shoe to come from behind and win it all.
Maybe if you find the love in any situation, even the most horrifying ones, maybe that’s where God is.
Sometimes it seemed so much of the beauty in life resulted from the ugly. And how did you make sense of such things? How could you be thankful for something when so much suffering was necessary to bring it to you? Or was that the very thing that defined real beauty–light after darkness?
Maybe I needed to feel safe and accepted in my pain before I was set free from this daily misery.