A Walk to Remember

by Nicholas Sparks

“I’d love to,” she finally said, “on one condition.” I steadied myself, hoping it wasn’t something too awful. “Yes?” “You have to promise that you won’t fall in love with me.”

“You’re a wonderful person, Jamie. You’re beautiful, you’re kind, you’re gentle… you’re everything that I’d like to be. If people don’t like you, or they think you’re strange, then that’s their problem.”

“You can’t be in love with me, Landon,” she said through red and swollen eyes. “We can be friends, we can see each other… but you can’t love me.”

Love is always patient and kind. It is never jealous. Love is never boastful or conceited. It is never rude or selfish. It does not take offense and is not resentful. Love takes no pleasure in other people’s sins, but delights in the truth. It is always ready to excuse, to trust, to hope, and to endure whatever comes.

“And when I asked you to the homecoming dance, you made me promise that I wouldn’t fall in love, but you knew that I was going to, didn’t you?” She had a mischievous gleam in her eye. “Yes.”

“I’ve even fallen in love and had someone love me back.”

It was, I remembered thinking, the most difficult walk anyone ever had to make. In every way, a walk to remember.

“I can no more give Jamie away than I can give away my heart. But what I can do is to let another share in the joy that she has always given me. May God’s blessings be with you both.”