One for My Enemy

by Olivie Blake

hate to break it to you but you left “too eager” about two hours ago and now you’re somewhere in the realm of “zealously available”

“I’m not here for a one-night stand, Sasha,” he told her. “The story we’re writing? It has chapters. Installments. I don’t want once.”

“I’ll never take what is yours. I’ll never demand anything from you. If you were mine, I’d take such care each day not to lose you. I’d give you my affection when you wanted it, my devotion when you needed it, and space to breathe when you did not. And you will always have my love,

“you are not incomplete because a piece of your heart is gone. You are you, an entire whole, all on your own. If you have loved and been loved, then you can only be richer for it—you don’t become a smaller version of yourself simply because what you once had is gone.”

For as long as his heart still beat beside hers, and for long after. For all of the afters, happily or not.

“I hope your peace serves you well,” Marya said, “because I am no longer willing.”