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The plight of the middle child was that you were never enough one way or another.
He was cocky. Too self-assured. He was a breath of fresh air. Exactly what Violet craved.
“I brought you to Martin’s party because I wanted everyone to see me with you,” he whispered.
He smiled, gazing at her furious expression. “I’m gonna marry you one day.” Violet shook her head, fighting off the elation she felt. “We’d drive each other nuts.” “Some people would call that love, baby.”
“I’m not saying it will be easy, but we’ll be able to overcome whatever life throws at us. Because that’s what love is. I love you and you love me.
think it’s pretty simple, actually. I know we’re young and everything, but there’s no one else I want to do life with, Vi.”
He was the love of her life. Nothing was going to keep them apart.
She was young and naive enough to believe that was true.
Valentine’s Day was nothing but a capitalist scam, and the world would be a much better place if everyone accepted this simple truth about this senseless holiday.
Like your chest was caving in and half of you was missing. She knew what it was like to be in love where nothing else mattered and your life seemed utterly pointless without that other person. She’d felt that way for someone once, and he wasn’t Eddy.
he had no way of knowing she’d become the most important person in his life. The person he’d never be able to forget.
it’s that we’re our most natural, raw selves as teenagers, and over time we either expand on those aspects of our personalities or we fight to cover them up. There’s a lot we need to catch up on, but I know you, and you know me too.”
She felt his chest rise and fall as he breathed. They fit together like Tetris pieces.
The familiarity of his lips sent tremors through her.
“In high school, I never would have imagined that our lives would have gone in such different directions, or that we would go almost a decade without speaking. Truthfully, no longer having you in my life ate me up inside, and I just learned to deal with it because I was the one who broke up with you and I didn’t think I deserved a place in your life anymore. I don’t know why we ran into each other in Vegas. It might have been a weird coincidence or maybe a stroke of fate. All I know is that our paths somehow crossed.”
“Our marriage might be fake and temporary,” he continued, “but I hope we can give this thing between us a try for real, because . .
“I can’t bear the thought of losing you again.”
It is my biggest regret, full stop. Even more than leaving Kentucky.”
Because here and now she could finally admit to herself that she’d never stopped loving him either. It felt so good to voice this truth, like her heart, which had been encased in fear and doubt, was finally allowed to be free. She didn’t have to decide whether or not she’d give her heart to Xavier, when it had been in his possession all along.
But sometimes things didn’t go to plan and life turned out okay anyway.
“Sometimes you fall in love with a person, and regardless of where life takes you, your heart refuses to let go,”
Their love was enough to stand the test of time through almost a decade spent apart. Their love was more than enough. Their relationship wasn’t perfect, but it was real. And that was exactly what he’d tell her when he saw her tomorrow. He was eager to speak to her now, but he wanted to give her the space she needed. He’d waited nine years to find her again. He could wait a little longer.
“I’ve never loved anyone the way that I love you,” he said. “There’s nobody else out there for me, Vi. I know we have a lot going on right now and the timing isn’t the best, but one day in the future, I still want to marry you.”
“I love you like people in this town love to gossip.”
“I love you like Mrs. Franklin loves her newsletter.”
love you like that older couple loved mini golf.” “And I love you like your basketball team loves winning.”
He held her close, and with the whole of her being she knew that right there in his arms was exactly where she belonged.
“Violet Greene, I love you more than life itself,” he said. “Will you marry me for real this time?”
So much of their reconnection had been unexpected. But that was the surprise of life. In the end, the plan they’d whispered to each other on prom night had come to fruition. Because sometimes you just knew when you met your person. It was an awareness, a precious feeling. Violet had known when she was sixteen years old and she’d laid her eyes on Xavier for the first time.
There were multiple iterations of their love. Violet and Xavier then. Violet and Xavier now. And when they kissed, they began the version of them that was yet to come.
