Reminders of Him

by Colleen Hoover

The place is getting busier, so I can’t give her the attention I want to give her, which is all my attention.

Her face is a work of art. I wish there was a picture of it hanging on a wall in a museum somewhere so I could stand in front of it and stare at it for as long as I wanted.

She hasn’t looked at anyone else tonight. Only me.

I want good things for her because it seems like she hasn’t had a good thing in a long, long time.

If she likes my truck, I love my truck. My truck is my second-favorite thing in the world right now.

“I bought caramel. In case you come back.”

Even the baby still growing in my stomach didn’t belong to me.

“Regret keeps you stuck on pause. So does prison. When you get out of here, make sure you hit play so you don’t forget to move forward.”

Because surely no one dies when they’re at their happiest.

Maybe it doesn’t matter whether something is a coincidence or a sign. Maybe the best way to cope with the loss of the people we love is to find them in as many places and things as we possibly can. And in the off chance that the people we lose are still somehow able to hear us, maybe we should never stop talking to them.

“I’m going to be so good to your girls, Scotty. I promise.”