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but eventually made it to Brett’s table, where I grabbed a silver pitcher full of ice water. “Ice queen, huh? I’ll give you ice queen.” Then I dumped the entire thing in his lap.
She’s a queen, that’s for damn sure
“I know your husband was the luckiest son of a bitch in the world. I know you’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever met. And I know I should leave right now, before I do something stupid.”
God, I hoped she left handprints. I’d fucking frame them.
Sheesh. That shouldn’t be so fucking hot, but it is.
We’re all just stumbling our way through life, hoping to arrive at the right destination. If something makes you feel good on the way, why not do it?”
For so long, I’d lived in fear of being abandoned, of being alone and having to start over, of failing.
I was a mother first and foremost, and the needs of my children would always come before my own.
Sometimes what looks like real love turns out to be infatuation. Sometimes real love exists, but people drift apart. Sometimes love is real, but the circumstances are all wrong. Love is tricky. And messy. And hard to explain.”
And every night, I lay awake yearning to be with her and wondering how the hell you got over losing someone who was never yours in the first place.
“Because when I think about her, my heart races. Because when she’s in the room, I can hardly breathe. Because I want to be with her all the time. Because I want to do things for her that make her smile. Because when she’s happy, I’m happy. Because she’s the first person in my head when I wake up, the last person I think about before I fall asleep, and the only person in the world who makes me feel like I’m the person I want to be.”
Mia had been sliding down on the sofa ever since I started talking, as if my story was deflating her hopes like a balloon losing air, and finally wound up in a puddle on the rug next to the coffee table. “That’s it,” she said. “I’m dead.”
Why is Mia me?
“I love you, Sylvia. But more than that, I love us together. I love that you listen to me ramble on about volatile acidity like it’s the most fascinating subject in the world. I love that you don’t care if my shirts have holes. I love hearing you tell stories about growing up here. I love the way you smile at me across a room. I love the way I can guess what you’re thinking by the blush in your cheeks. I love the way you put family first, because that’s all I’ve ever wanted to do too.”
“I know you’re scared, and that’s okay. I know you’re not used to someone keeping his promises. And I know it’s going to take time for me to break down all those walls, but damn it, Sylvia, you’re going to let me try. You’re going to let me stick around. And you’re going to let me love you, and prove to you that we can build something so real and so strong, it’s unbreakable.”
