Here for the Cake

by Jennifer Millikin

Why does he have to look good enough to eat, while the only thing I look good enough to be eaten by is a dog? I’m not even the good, fresh food. I’m kibble.

You’d be surprised how much pain the heart can hold.” “I’m no stranger to pain.”

“You can come quietly. Or you can scream and give away our location. I’m a proud contributor to either response.”

“Doubling down on a bad decision is never the right choice.”

Maybe falling for someone isn’t a process. It isn’t meted out, like bullet points in a timeline. Maybe it’s a thing that happens quietly, when you’re watching them hug their mother, or pedal a bike under a canopy of trees, or climb a lighthouse during a storm. When they’re reaching for your hand when you’re struggling, just to let you know you’re not alone. Is it when they learn how you like to be kissed, and then to do it well, and often? If so, I have my answer.

“We had something back then, Paisley, and we have something today, and that tells me we’ll have something in twenty years. In forty. In fifty. We are evergreen.”