This is what daughters did. They left, and came home later with lives of their own.
In those first few hours officially single again the world seems like it expands, suddenly bigger and more vast now that you have to get through it alone.
Whether it was a song, a person, or a story, there was a lot you couldn’t know from just an excerpt, a glance, or part of a chorus.
But something, somehow, had made all these paths converge. You couldn’t find it on a checklist, or work it into the equation. It just happened.
The further you go, the more you have to be proud of. At the same time, in order to come a long way, you have to be behind to begin with. IN the end, though maybe it’s not how you reach a place that matters. Just that you get there at all.
This was our common ground, the secret we shared but never spoke aloud. I should have been with him; she should have left him alone. Shoulda, coulda, woulda. It’s so easy in the past tense.
None of it meant anything, and all of it was important.
It was becoming clear to me that I shouldn’t bother to get too attached to anything. Turn your back and you lose it. Just like that.
This is exactly what i wanted, as commitments had never really been my thing. And it wasn’t like it was hard, either. The only trick was never giving more than you were willing to lose.
When he stopped walking and kissed me a few minutes later, it was like time had stopped, with the air, my heart, and the world all so still. And it was this I remembered every other time I was with Marshall.
Looking back, it seemed like it should have been harder to lose someone, or have them lose you, especially when they were in the same state, only a few towns over.
With my mom, when someone was gone, they were gone. She didn’t waste another minute thinking about them, and neither should you.
I should have told you from the start. I will let you down.
He wasn’t what I’d thought he was; maybe he never had been. I wasn’t what I’d thought I was, either.
That was the nice thing about the Spot: you could hear everything, but no one could see you.
Impulsiveness can be charming but deliberation can have an appeal, as well.
But I always worked harder when I was up against something, or when someone assumed I couldn’t succeed. That’s what drove me, all those nights studying. The fact that so many figured I couldn’t do it.
Why don’t you ever wait a second and see what I’m planning, or thinking, before you burst in with your opinions and ideas? You never even give me a chance.
You can’t act like you care about someone but not let them care about you.
Just me and the future, finally together. Now there was a happy ending I could believe in.