Hello Beautiful

by Ann Napolitano

It was because she loved him that Rose had been so disappointed by her marriage and why it was essential that her girls grow up strong and educated, able to stand on their own two feet, unbowed by something as tricky and undependable as love.

“Hello beautiful,” he said. And with those words, Cecelia knew that she was forgiven, and she forgave him too.

Many guests wept, on and off, as if their tears were for Charlie but also for their own personal heartbreaks.

In a setting where weeping was acceptable, they would take their opportunity.

She didn’t think there was anything morally wrong with having sex with someone she liked but didn’t love, but a new loneliness had arrived deep inside her.

I’d never seen that kind of love in person.

while William was able to exist in a bubble at the university. She was glad he was in a bubble; she just wished she had one of her own.

I often find myself feeling this way in a relationship. When they have a group of friends they can rely on and fall back on. Whether as a distraction or with feelings. I dont talk to my frineds back at home that often and dont have many here so when things go wrong i find myslef feeling lonley and envying that kind of friendship. Wishing i was near my friends too. And dont get me wrong im happy that they have that but just like she said i wish i had that too.

She lived in a silence she’d created, and she felt herself deepening into it. She didn’t regret her choice;

Sometimes she would see a mother at Alice’s daycare whose style she admired or who seemed to have a full-time job, like Julia did, and she considered approaching the woman. But the gulf between her and the total stranger was oceanic, and Julia had no idea how to cross it.

Oof thats a perfect way to explain it. Its not a fear but instead the unkowing how.

and he found that, in her glow, his plans became more concrete, more clear.

And besides, you can’t fail when you’re doing what you love.”

He would turn from his textbook to look at her, not caring if she noticed, not

caring if she looked up from the page. Sometimes he would pull her into his arms, or she’d climb onto his lap, and they would entwine their limbs, take off each other’s clothes, all their movements soft, gentle, reverent.

“We have to keep growing,” she said, “or we don’t live.”

“You must always wear flats, my dear, to make the boys more comfortable.”

Ew. If you has to comform yourself to make a boy more cofortable than he's the wrong boy.

“I like your mom a lot,” Carrie had said, “but anyone that dresses and does their hair as carefully as your mom does every single day is unhappy on the inside. She’s trying to hide all her messiness, and I want better than that for you.”

Ooo very intuitive. She's not wrong clearly.

Alice thought: She’s done the same with me.

She has indeed:(

“You need Julia.”

Fuck this made me tear up.

he realized now that he must have shaped Alice by his absence, by his silence, even though he’d intended to save her by the same means.

“I know it sounds silly, but I’m proud of myself. I guess for living a brave life.”

We need you. Come home.”

Another tear up

But the big man in front of Alice looked like his ground had been pulled apart. He looked weary and kind, and so she said, “I won’t leave,”

my heart feels like its breaking for them

because whatever Julia had taken away from Alice for all these years, she’d taken away from herself as well.

Thats a powerful realization on her part