Happiness For Beginners

by Katherine Center

And, ultimately, just: anybody but me.

For taking care of Duncan and being his friend.

Happiness is more about appreciation than acquisition.”

“You look pretty awful,” Jake said. Fuck you, I wanted to say.

She was exactly the inspiration I’d come here looking to find.

“I gave you Jake because you’re headstrong and accident prone, and he’s our medic and I trust him to patch you up. I gave you Jake because you’re the best map reader we’ve got, and he’s damn near blind. And I gave you Jake

because you absolutely never believe in yourself—and he finds a way to believe in you every damn day.”

This impossibly capable, utterly independent guy was losing his sight.

“I fell in love with his hair, and his beard, and the way his eyes crinkle when he smiles, and his goofy Hawaiian shirts, and his can-do attitude, and the way he applies Band-Aids. I fell in love with the way he’s read every book in the world. How he listens when you talk and remembers what you say. How he knows every fact in existence about the ocean and the creatures that live in it. I fell in love with his forearms, and his calf muscles, and the way his front two teeth are just a little longer than the others. And the dimples. And the way he sings. And the way he watches me, and pays attention in a way that guys never, ever do and seems to get something essential about me that I don’t even get myself.”

“It’s his heart he sees with, sweetheart.”

always like you best when you’re a mess.”