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January 5 - January 6, 2024
a man as gruff as him could kiss like this, so tenderly, making me feel like I was the only person on earth who mattered.
it took an emotional connection to really turn me on.
Maybe it wasn’t a matter of shyness, a roadblock I needed to overcome: maybe it was just a part of what made me me.
“It’s important to me not to be a cheater.”
Try putting your needs first for once.”
have an honest conversation about how you both feel.
Caring about someone is such a risk.
I’m an artist. I make things. I like control. Love is the opposite.”
“I’m celebrating. Here’s to picking yourself up after a fall. To having good instincts about danger and learning to listen to them. And to getting closure.”
I put on the mantle of new Alexis, who did not crumple after rejection, but instead had a steel spine and a sense of purpose and, most importantly, a fancy yellow dress from Rent the Runway that demanded to be worn.
Alexis Stone: honest, fair, and alone.
In my experience, you couldn’t trust other people to reciprocate your feelings: not your devotion, your care, or even your loyalty.
what I figured the world wanted from me on top of my own wishes for so long that it had become nearly impossible to know how I really felt. What I wanted.
that day in his living room when he asked me if I’d ever thought about writing. He was always so good at seeing me.
I could tell what I was saying was right because it felt like settling into myself. No more fitting into uncomfortable molds.
It was getting hard to breathe. I wasn’t allowed to make demands of other people. I was the one who accommodated.
“You made me feel small,” I burst, surprising even myself.
he was going to stop pretending to be someone he wasn’t to appease people.
I’d thought he and I were complete opposites, but where it mattered, we were the same.
There was no use telling myself to stop, because I loved him beyond logic and reason.
I just can’t make myself be like you. I’m a different person,
I don’t want a big, zany life. I’m happy with a small, quiet one.
I need you to stop pushing me to be someone I’m not.
I want you to be proud of me for who I am.”
“Hear this: you cannot lose me. There’s no one in this world I love more. You’re my little sister, Alexis. You’re the greatest gift life ever gave me.”
it’s not a bad thing to put your heart on the line with someone who has a track record of showing up. That’s when you can be vulnerable without being a doormat.”
“You weren’t part of the plan. None of what’s happened since that night was part of the plan.”
“You’re so much better than the plan.”
fictions could be the truest parts of life.
“I’ve missed you,” he whispered. “So much.” I closed my eyes. “I have a hundred things to tell you and I don’t know how to choose.”
someone walk in and become the most important thing to you in an instant?
“Everything about you makes me very nervous and very happy at the same time.”
“I know exactly what you mean.”
“Right now, the only thing I want is to fall asleep holding you.”
“Whatever it takes, let me keep her.”
Sometimes the people who ended up being right for us were not the ones we expected.
was about Richard falling in love with another person and making a choice.
The truth had been so different than I’d realized.
You are worth a thousand lifetimes of devotion.”
may have lost, but I still won.”
I’ve finally found myself where I belong
it was more a discovery that we were where we belonged all along.
