Hopeless

by Colleen Hoover

“Is the way we feel about each other normal? We haven’t really known each other for very long. Most of that time was spent avoiding each other. But I don’t know, it just seems different with you. I assume when most people date, the first few months are spent trying to build a connection.” I lift my head off his chest and look up at him. “I feel like I had that with you the moment we met. Everything about us is so natural.

One of the things I love about books is being able to define and condense certain portions of a character’s life into chapters. It’s intriguing, because you can’t do this with real life. You can’t just end a chapter, then skip the things you don’t want to live through, only to open it up to a chapter that better suits your mood. Life can’t be divided into chapters… only minutes. The events of your life are all crammed together one minute right after the other without any time lapses or blank pages or chapter breaks because no matter what happens life just keeps going and moving forward and words keep flowing and truths keep spewing whether you like it or not and life never lets you pause and just catch your fucking breath.

“All marriages have a time limit if you enter them for the wrong reasons. Marriage doesn’t get easier… it only gets harder. If you marry someone hoping it will improve things, you might as well set your timer the second you say, ‘I do.’ ”