The Escape Plan (Only Magic in the Building)

by Katie Bailey

Like any good Irishwoman worth her salt, she had many sayings, but “What’s for you won’t pass you” was Gran’s favorite. She loved the idea that we don’t get to control our own fates, that life has its own funny way of working things out. That if something is meant to be, it will be.

Keeley has only been a part of my life for a couple of weeks, but I already know that she’s made up of many layers. Layers I can’t get enough of peeling back and seeing. She’s strong and feisty and funny yet vulnerable and sweet and caring all at once. The best person I’ve met in a long time. My Gran would have loved her.

It’s like seeing daylight after so long in darkness.

Because love can enter your life in different ways, at different times. And maybe the answer isn’t how love begins or ends, but the journey on which it takes you. How it shapes you and molds you and makes you grow. Changes you, for the better.

“And I know you always like to quote your Gran saying what’s for you won’t pass you, but I came up with a new version for you to consider.” “Oh yeah?” I ask. Mam smiles. “When fate gives you what’s for you… don’t let it slip away.”

Ezra pauses. And then, he smiles. “You asked me a moment ago how I know that Mae will never leave me, and the simple answer is: I don’t. I don’t know what the future holds. But I wake up every single day and choose her, and will continue to choose her, even when the going gets tough—because it does—because I love her.