Love, Theoretically

by Ali Hazelwood

I think I might be happy.

Because I want to know your life, maybe, or Because I want to know you.

“She’s not your girlfriend.” “She is if she wants to be. She can be my damn wife if she wants to be.”

“I want you, Elsie. All the time. I think of you. All. The. Fucking. Time. I’m distracted. I’m shit at work. And my first instinct, the very first time I saw you, was to run away. Because I knew that if we’d start doing this, we would never stop. And that’s exactly how it is. There is no universe in which I’m going to let you go. I want to be with you, on you, every second of every day.

Jack knows all of this, and he loves me. Not anyway, but because.

Dear Jack, I know I’ve been slow, but I just wanted you to know something: I’m right here. With you.