From Lukov with Love

by Mariana Zapata

You are who you are in life, and you either live that time trying to bend yourself to make other people happy, or… you don’t.

Mom wasn’t just a cougar, she was The Cougar. All other cougars hailed to her.

I took a step toward his Tesla

bmw to tesla is such a downgradeee

didn’t hate him. I hated my ex and a few other people, but I just didn’t like Ivan. He was argumentative, arrogant, blunt…. I’d just described myself, hadn’t I? Shit.

Then, the woman who even with two black eyes didn’t look like she’d given birth to five kids, and definitely didn’t look like her youngest—me—was twenty-six years old, finally did glance in my direction.

just say “my mom glanced at me” the hell

“If you paid more attention, you’d know I fall on my right cheek. I know you fall on your left one.”

this creep knows which ass cheek she falls on

“And I made it with almond-coconut milk. You don’t need the extra dairy,”

boiii

The expression on his face instantly changed, but I didn’t think anything of it.

you never think about anything

“I wanted you to be my partner for years, dumbass. When Karina had told me you were thinking about switching to pairs, I had thought you would say something to me, even in passing as a joke. I thought you would say you were going to kick my ass, and I had planned on talking to you over it. But you never did. The next thing I knew, you had a partner. Some dipshit that wasn’t half as good as you.”

Then I looked down at the fitted T-shirt and leggings I’d put on, and shrugged inside. The Lukovs had seen me in worse. They knew I wasn’t feeling well. It wasn’t like I was meeting my new boyfriend’s parents.

girlie couldn’t have put on some jeans or something??

Love to me was honesty. Being real. Knowing someone’s best and worst. Love was a push that said someone believed in you when you didn’t.

I loved him. I loved this man so much that losing him was going to break my cold, dead heart into so many pieces I was just going to have to stick them in the same box I kept my dreams and carry it around with me forever.

where the hell did this revelation come from

Whatever happens, he mouthed to me. But then his lips kept forming words. Three words exactly. I love you.