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“Do you think I’m a monster for not crying?”

“No,” “People grieve in different ways.”

“…Besides…” Xavier’s dimples deepened. “I said your hobbies are boring, not you. I don’t find a single thing about you boring.”

“Sharing food was a simple, platonic act that people did every day, so why did my stomach feel like a breeding ground for a fresh swarm of butterflies?”

“But that was the thing about death—it came for everyone. Young and old, rich and poor, good and evil. It was life’s greatest equalizer.”

“I would never tell her any of that, though, because if there was one thing sure to send Sloane Kensington running, it was the possibility of intimacy.”

“I knew all of these things because despite her assumption that I paid attention to no one except myself, I couldn’t stop noticing her if my life depended on it. Every detail, every moment, all filed and categorized in the Sloane cabinet of my mind.”

“I knew she loved sushi because it was neat and easy to eat on the go. I knew she preferred double cheeseburgers when she was on her period and steak, medium rare, at client dinners unless her client was vegetarian, in which case she ordered soup and salad. She liked her wine white, her coffee black, and her gin with a splash of tonic.“

“You don’t know how I taste.”
His smile took on a decidedly more wicked slant. “Not yet.”

“…as droplets of water cascaded down my face, I pretended they were tears.”

“I never knew it was possible for two people to affect one another on such a molecular level. I’ve dated before. Nothing overly serious, but I’ve yet to reach leper status. This thing between me and Isaac is different. It has a life of its own.”

“I didn’t need him, but I missed him so desperately it felt like I did.”

“Well,” Kai said, his posh British accent sounding a tad too dignified for the situation. “This is awkward.”

ariana what are you doing here!? 🤣

“But I broke her heart once, and I’d let her break my heart a thousand times in return if it meant that one day, she found her way back to me.”

“There are probably hundreds of men who’d line up for the chance to be with you. I only ask that you let me be one of them.”

“You broke my heart, and you weren’t even there to witness it.”

“Actions spoke louder than words, and in that moment, I didn’t care about the things he’d done or hadn’t done during our marriage. I simply leaned into him, breathed in the comfort of his familiar scent, and let him hold me together.”

“Some kisses were a product of passion. Others were an outpouring of emotion. But this one? This one was a fucking revelation. Because when Alessandra angled her chin up and kissed me back, I finally understood, if only for a moment in time, what true contentment felt like. No yearning, no chasing, no worries. Just her and us. It was all I needed.”

“She was the only person who’d ever truly mattered. Even if she didn’t love me anymore, even if all my efforts to win her back failed, she would always be the sun anchoring my universe.”

“You matter,” I said. “Always.”

“That was the irony of life. People always reminisced about the good old days, but we never appreciated living in those days until they were gone.”

“…I want to know what makes you laugh, what makes you cry, what your dreams look like when you sleep and what keeps you up when you can’t. I’ll spend however many lifetimes I need to rediscover those parts of you, because you’re it for me. In every iteration of every life. Things may have changed since we got married, but you and me? We were always meant for forever.”

“That’s the thing,” he said softly. “There is no moving on. Not for me.”

“Fuck.”

Famous 4 letters. Chapter 18 😌

“…You’ve spent your life living for others. Now you can finally live for yourself.”

“Shards of glass wedged between my ribs with each step, but an icy numbness enveloped me as I opened the top drawer. I retrieved a pen, slid a sheaf of documents out from the waiting manila envelope, and, after one last, agonizing heartbeat, I signed our divorce papers.” 💔

“…I had the dim thought that if I did die, I would do so happily because I was exactly where I belonged: with her.”

“I’m past romantic, Alessandra. I’m desperate.”

“I finally had a good reason to cry, but no tears came. I just felt…numb.”

“How ironic that she expects me to run scared. She couldn’t get rid of me if she wanted to.”

“Come back. Come back. Come back.”