A Wish For Us

by Tillie Cole

She was my God-given gift. The girl that brought me back life.

I just needed her, full stop.

I would face the cold if it meant being in his arms

And I didn’t know what pain he harbored, but I knew I could be here for him right now.

I took a moment to savor him. To leave a photograph in my soul of the moment his walls fell down and he led me, hands grasped and fingers entwined, inside his heart. Where I would never leave. Where I forever wanted to stay.

The expression in his eyes made my legs weak.

he felt heaven-sent. Sent into my life exactly when I needed him.

I didn’t want to be dark and empty inside anymore.

I got it. Christ knew I got it. I could see the pain he was in every day as he walked around, lost.

Hell, I needed him. He was the only other person who understood all this.

“To be forever in love . . . and to be forever loved.” I gave a watery smile. “That is now my dream.”

I needed her, and I wasn’t sure what the hell I’d do if I didn’t have her in my life.

And I knew one thing above everything else: that I loved him. I was convinced I could have forgotten everything about him but that. That I loved him with all my heart.

my warmth. The blazing soul that kept mine tethered to this life.

I had made many wishes in my life, but Cromwell had been the wish that I never made. The granted wish that, in the end, was the one I cherished most.

He was the air I breathed, the moon at my night.

When his eyes fixed on me, I could see nothing but love.

And when Cromwell held me tighter, it felt like coming home.

I breathed in the scent of him and let it inside my body with peace.

“Losing people you love can make the world seem very dark. But I’ve realized that even though they’re gone from us physically, they’re never truly gone.”

And I want to love life with you in it. I don’t care where it takes us, as long as it means something. As long as our lives have purpose for those who couldn’t be with us along the way.”