An Optimist's Guide to Heartbreak (Heartsong, #1)

by Jennifer Hartmann

After all, Lucy is my heart, and Cal is my soul.

Deceptive Cadence: When you think something is coming to an end, it’s actually the beginning of something beautiful.

“I just mean…not everything that makes us hurt needs to be forgotten or banished. It hurts because it mattered. And things that mattered once, will always matter,”

I wish I could bottle this moment; package it up and store it inside me, unwrapping it when I need the reminder that my Cal is still in there.

Beautiful things never last, and that’s why fireflies flash.

I have no idea how to confess that kissing him would be the tipping point to love. And love? Love has teeth. Love will eat us both alive.

It’s fascinating how two people burned from the same experience can come out on the other side with completely different scars.

Right now, I have everything, and all that ever really matters is right now.

“This is how I see you, Lucy,” he tells me soberly. “Weightless. Free. In love with life, untethered from hardship. Perfect in every way.” Dropping the phone to his side, he looks off over my shoulder at the small window above the sink. His eyes narrow with thought, with memory. “This is how I’ve always seen you.”

I won’t love you, I won’t love you, I won’t love you. And I refuse to call it fate; I refuse to call it luck—but I suppose it’s for the best that I can’t love him either. The difference is…I say can’t. He says won’t.

Things that make us sad aren’t all bad. Sometimes, sad things serve as a gentle reminder that we still feel.

That’s the truth; he knows it, and I know it. The precise definition of our relationship is decidedly ambiguous, but still—we’re more. More than co-workers. More than acquaintances. More than friends, even. More than what we can become.

I tried so hard to shelter my heart from love. I tried to hide it, protect it, keep it safe. I buried it out of reach, too scared to let anyone hold it. But I forgot to fireproof it. And as everything around me burns, it cowers inside my chest, begging to be spared.

I was foolish and naïve. I was playing with fire. And I realize now… The hotter the flame, the faster it burns out.

Cal told me to break for him, and that’s what I’m doing. Optimists fall, too. This is how we break.