Truly, Madly, Deeply

by Alexandria Bellefleur

Maybe the slide from adoration to mounting frustration to outright vexation had been gradual, but the realization that she didn’t care enough to try anymore was like flipping a switch.

Truly loved love as much as the next person, but no one deserved to spend their life tethered to someone who wasn’t right for them, wasn’t good to them.

We might have had differing opinions, but that didn’t make my opinion any less valid than yours.”

I could’ve disagreed with you without belittling your stance, and for that I’m sorry. It was a dick move on my part, trivializing your viewpoint.”

I’ve seen enough to know that sometimes letting someone go can be the greatest gesture of love a person can make.”

you don’t want your parents to be happy; you want them to be together.” “It’s the same thing.” “Is it?”

You just got out of a six-year relationship with a man-child you gave a lot of yourself to and got next to nothing from in return. You deserve to be happy.”

you always had to be the responsible one. I don’t know when it happened, but somewhere along the line he stopped treating you like a partner, and he expected you to—to practically be his mother.” Truly wrinkled her nose. “That’s not—” “It’s true and you know it. And I know you did it because you loved”—it must’ve taken a lot for Lulu to say the word, her nose wrinkling and lips pursing distastefully—“Justin and because you have a big heart and you wanted so badly to see the best in him. You wanted to believe he could be better, but you? You deserve so much more than six years wasted waiting on a pumpkin to turn into Prince Charming.”

She was a brunch person at best, a happy-hour person, a stay-up-until-three-in-the-morning-finishing-this-chapter person, a just-one-more-page person. She was not built to watch the sun rise.

“Maybe love isn’t enough,

My life was going to be divided into Before Truly and After Truly and the thought of there being an after still scares me. I’m terrified that one day you’re going to tell me to go and you’re actually going to mean it. But I’d rather be with you, try with you, than walk away on the off chance that calling it quits now might hurt less than some hypothetical hurt down the road.”