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September 7 - September 13, 2025
“Wildflower?”
“I mean, your name’s Dahlia, is it not?”
“I don’t think dahlias are categorized as wildflowers. They’re a bit more curated. Proper.”
“Doesn’t fit you at all then, does it? Wildflower is much better.”
“What? Like a...
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“I was thinking of something more like colorful. Bright. Resilient. Sprouting up in the places you least expect them and blowing away on the wind just as quickly.”
“Beautiful, too, of course.”
I remember the way he looked at me that night, like I wasn’t someone’s mom, someone’s daughter or sister. I was just a girl in a bar who caught his eye. He looked at me like I was desirable, alluring. That look in his eyes made me feel free and wild and unworried. It made it easy for me to say yes, to throw caution to the wind and let myself go.
“Your mouth must be dry from all the panting.”
De repente tus brazos dejaron de funcionar? ¿Ya no eres capaz de ponerte tu propio protector solar?”
“I didn’t know you could speak Italian.”
“Bella, ti parlerò in qualunque lingua tu mi dica se questo ti farà continuare a guardarmi in quel modo.”
“You look at me like that all the time,”
“Yeah, well…”
“I can’t stop thinking about it. About you. That night. You sure as fuck don’t make it easy to forget when you look at me like you...
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“Not to mention, my daughter really likes you. I don’t let men meet her. Ever. Because if there is one thing I know with certainty, it’s that my flings never work out. I won’t do that to her. Or Darby. Or Leo. Or Monica. It’s too
much.”
“Oh, r...
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“And we work together. Are all those reasons enough for you to re...
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would be an astronomically...
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I love it when she says my name.
“Just know that it’s killing me. If nothing else, if it can’t be acted on, know that I wish it could…”
“If you change your mind, I want you to know that I’m not afraid of complicated, and I won’t hurt Lou. Ever.”
I don’t think it’s just because she’s afraid of her daughter being hurt. I think it’s because she’s afraid of hurting herself. Of being abandoned. Of not being enough for someone, not worthy of the love she so badly wants to receive but refuses to let herself have.
And fuck, if that doesn’t make me want to tear down her walls and show her she’s worthy of everything. It makes me want to cut through her armor and pull out the wildflower buried beneath it, waiting to bloom.
“Then you better stop looking at me like you’ve been wandering the desert for forty days and forty nights, and I’m the mirage of an oasis. Like you’re dying of thirst and I’m the body of water you want to drown yourself in.”
“Because I want to drown myself in you, too, Wildflower.”
“The fact that I’m staring at your lips right now and knowing I’ll never feel them again… It’s breaking my heart, Wildflower.”
“Don’t flirt with me.”
“Telling me not to flirt with you is like telling me not to breathe around you. It’s biological, written in my D...
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“Then don’t breathe.”
“It makes my ovaries ache.”
“We’ve all been broken down. Lost and wandering is what it feels like. Then, a few months ago, Leo got that letter.”
“And I haven’t found that purpose yet. My purpose for healing.”
“But you know what, Dahlia? Taking that kid out on a surfboard and watching her laugh, watching you laugh because of it”—he
it certainly feels like the sun is shining after year...
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“So, you’re not a fucking obligation. You, your sister, and your daughter, you are exactly what we’ve all been needing.”
“I wanted to. You can allow people to do things for you just because they want to, Dahlia.”
“You can allow people to do things for you just because they want to, Everett.”
“I know the best compliment I can give you is that you’re a great mother,”
“I see how much you love her, how much you sacrifice for her. I see the way your face lights up when she says your name, when she smiles at you. I think you’re patient, supportive, and loving. You’re nurturing, but you also teach her right from wrong, how to set boundaries and when she’s crossing them too.”
“You’re a good fucking mom, Dahlia. But you don’t need to be all alone in order to be a good mom. I just hope you figure that out eventually.”
“I hope you realize that you have a lot to offer, and that you have value regardless of what your siblings—or anyone else—do with their lives. I hope you figure out your worth.”
Grief kind of feels like a bullet wound that never fully heals.
Sometimes, it’s just a scar, and then other days, you wake up and feel like it tore right through you again, this gaping hole in the center of your chest sucking the life right out of you. You’re never entirely sure which days you’re going to find yourself bleeding out and which days you’ll feel patched up, but I’m always certain that on the anniversary of the loss, that hole is bigger than ever.
I let my eyes fall closed, soaking in this moment with her. I know it’s not real. It was only meant to be a few camera flashes to fuck with her dad. A few lunch dates to impress mine. That’s all this is supposed to be. But the way Dahlia sighs against me, the way her body meshes into mine—a flawless fit beneath my hands—it feels as if all the fear and grief and stress in our lives melts away. We spin on the dance floor in momentary peace, and I can’t ignore the fact that this doesn’t feel fake at all.
“I’m just making sure he knows you’re mine.”
“We’re friends,”
“Friends,”
“Do all your friends make you squirt?”
