Fall at Once

by Nora Everly

To be clear, nothing was wrong with being thirty—it just felt like an arbitrary marker in time I’d set for myself and failed to live up to. Did I have kids? No. A house? No. A husband? No. Not even a pet to call my own.

I feel this.

Of course, for that plan to work, I’d have to stop having my groceries delivered and commit to leaving my apartment once in a while.

Ooh, I also feel this.

He always said life was like a mirror. It will smile at you if you smile at it.

She was cute. She was beautiful. Too fucking irresistible is what she was. I didn’t know whether to love it or hate how attracted to her I had become.

I’m a human calamity. A walking disaster.”

She was like fucking sunshine, and I was nothing but a grumpy, dark cloud.

I want you, and I shouldn’t You’re gorgeous, hilarious, smart, and funny. My kids adore you, and I hate that I want you so bad.

It would have been a shut-up ring if he proposed to you that night—like a ‘will you marry me and shut the fuck up about it’ kind of thing. He would have been one of those wedding reception cake-smashed-in-your-face guys, Madi. It wouldn’t have been holy matrimony; it would have been holy shit; what was I thinking? And you know it.

Women are elusive—all of them are different. There is no such thing as a game plan for love, and anyone who says there is is a fool.

“There is no place I’d rather be than here with you. Believe that. You deserve a man who will take care of you, respect you, and treat you like the amazing woman that you are. Not some dumb motherfucker who would try to humiliate you in a goddamn bar.”

“You kiss me this time. Do anything you want to me. Climb in my lap, shove me against the door, take what you need, go as far as you want⁠—”

“I’m okay with a slow burn, Cole.” Her eyes gentled. “I’m okay with taking our time, moving slow. But I’m not okay with denying my feelings.