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And if so, how do I become my own hero? Because I’m ready. I’m done being damaged and fragile and careful and scared. I’m done.
“You can’t put your worth in someone else’s hands like that. Whether those hands are stroking you or hurting you. It doesn’t matter. Your value comes from inside. Whether you mean
something to him or not has nothing to do with how inherently valuable you are.”
“I think this is Aldo coming around and pulling out all the stops. Prepare to be swept off your feet.”
“I don’t think I’m ready for that. Can’t he just say hello to me once a week for a year or so until I get used to looking at him?” “I don’t think that’s how he works. You’ll be married in no time,”
“I don’t care if you’re ‘damaged,’” she said, throwing his own word back at him. “You and me? We’re not wounded. We’re scarred.”
“The thing about a scar?” Gloria continued. “It means we’re healing. It means we’re survivors.
“Do you want to come upstairs and drink tea and watch Pride and Prejudice with me? Because I need a friend.”
“Is it the Colin Firth version or the Keira Knightly one?”
“I have ...
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He’d stayed. He’d stayed, listened to her word vomit, watched the sappiest of sappy movies with her, and held her when she needed a friend. A boyfriend. Her heart limped slowly in her chest. Aldo Moretta was a real man.
“Silence keeps it too powerful,” she recited. “Or at least, that’s what my therapist says. Keeping it a secret that no one else knows gives it this unholy strength. But talking about it? It’s ugly and hard, but it takes the power away.”
Little did she know how much of her was already indelibly etched into his skin.
“I can’t believe we got matching tattoos on our first date,”
“Do you want this? Do you want me like this?”
“Touch me, Aldo,” she demanded.
"Don’t you fucking stop, Aldo,”
“You and me,” he repeated. “You and me.”
“Aldo. You made me feel like you were wild with desire for me. There is nothing more special than that. It was like…hell, I don’t know. Like I was finally realizing my potential. Aldo, it was beautiful. I’d also like to point out that there’s plenty left that we didn’t do. That was no home run.”
I am my own hero. And I was from the minute I walked away from him. I just didn’t know it. But I do now.
Find your blue water, lieutenant, and keep working.”
“I am being honest. I want to be with you. I want to make love to you until neither one of us can walk or move or breathe.” “That sounds like a good start. Let’s do that.”
This wasn’t sex. This was a spiritual experience. Two souls opening to one another, the most vulnerable they could be. Together.
“Oh my God. You’re perfection,”
“You look at me like…like I’m something incredible,”
“You look at me like I’m a hero.” “You are, Aldo....
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“You’re so fucking beautiful, Gloria. So fucking everything to me.”
“Don’t you dare stop,” Gloria gasped. “I don’t care if I have oxygen. I just want you. All of you. Every piece, every scar, every
millimeter of flawed perfection. You’re mine, Aldo. Please make me yours.”
“I’d do anything for you, Gloria. Anything.” And with that vow, Aldo drove himself into her.
“I want to show you all the ways you can come. I want to taste you, every single inch of you. I want to belong to you.”
“Oh, God, Aldo.”
“I think we should get married.” Aldo gasped out. Gloria laughed, unwittingly clamping down on the penis still buried inside her. He groaned and shifted his hips against her.
“Oh, hey. Asking for a friend,” she said lightly. “Are guys freaked out when a girl cries after sex?”
“Depends on why she’s crying,”
“Because you made her feel like...
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“You’re my fucking miracle, Gloria.” “And...
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“Let me be your fantasy, Aldo,” she pleaded. “Like you’re mine.” “Fuck, sweetheart. When you say things like that, how can I deny you anything?”
“Why would you want to?”
“I love your daughter.”
“Good. You will marry her and make sure she is safe and happy for the rest of her life then.”
“That’s where my hea...
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“I love you for it. Screw it. I love you. I’ve been not saying it for a while now—since the laundry—and…now…” she gestured around them. “I just love you. I love you so much.”
“Gloria, will you please shut up so I can tell you that I don’t remember ever not loving you?”
“I love you, Gloria. I’m in love with you.”
“To soften the blow when I tell you that you’re not responsible for the mood of the room.”
“Whatever’s going on, it’s not your job to fix it or make it better. It’s not your job to make everybody happy.”
“When you try to fix things for other people, you’re basically saying you don’t believe in their ability to fix it themselves. You’re telling them you don’t believe in them. Respect them. Trust them.”
“You can’t control everything and everyone. You can’t make everything perfect and everyone happy. You can be happy and make good choices for yourself.”
“I’m scared you won’t be able to forgive me. I’m scared that I wrecked the best thing that happened to me because I thought it was too good to be true. That someone like me didn’t deserve to be loved by someone like you. I’m scared that I’m not going to be able to fix it.”
