It's Not Just Semantics Quotes

“Life is meant to be cherished, and lived, and risked. You’re scared of the past and all its mistakes. You’re afraid of the future and all its unpredictabilities. I understand that. But you have to learn to take courage. You have to let go and forgive. You have to trust and hope for a happy future.”
― Mayumi Cruz, It's Not Just Semantics

“Can't you for once, just this once, stop over thinking, and just…feel?”
― Mayumi Cruz, It's Not Just Semantics

“the kiss he was giving her today was oh, so achingly slow and heart-stirringly tender. It tugged at the deepest corners of her heart, pulled at every heartstring, stirred each nerve ending. It was so beautifully poignant she felt like crying and laughing at the same time. She felt him—every fiber, every atom of his being, even his very soul—meshed with her own.”
― Mayumi Cruz, It's Not Just Semantics

“You still lost, Marj. You still got hurt. And losing and hurting are what I don’t want.”
Her sister held her stare. “Do you honestly think you’re not losing and hurting now, as you speak?”
She didn’t have an answer to that. She didn’t need to. Her heart was busy shattering into pieces. Why was that? She got out before she was even in, didn’t she? She should be congratulating herself for being spared of the certainty of heartbreak and tears. Why was she feeling like a huge part of herself was gone, replaced by a bottomless hole where regret and longing suddenly took up residence, and where questions like ‘if you were only brave enough’ and ‘what if things turn out differently than you expected’ echoed endlessly within its walls?”
― Mayumi Cruz, It's Not Just Semantics

“There’s lust…and then there’s chemistry. There’s a big difference between the two.”

“Lust is a physical connection. Nothing more, nothing less. Chemistry, on the other hand, is beyond physical.”
― Mayumi Cruz, It's Not Just Semantics

“Stop running and start feeling.”
― Mayumi Cruz, It's Not Just Semantics

“It was just a simple meeting of the eyes. There was nothing to it. She had done so with countless people. And she had stared at his eyes before, back at the cinema. But there was something different at that exact time, in that exact situation, with exactly the same person.
It was like being struck by lightning. Sudden, electric, paralyzing.
And she knew he felt it too. For some inexplicable reason, they both found themselves unable to look away, powerless to deny the pull. Hypnotized by each other’s brown irises, without knowing nor caring who wielded the magic wand of trance which put them into some kind of conscious stupor. While the world and everything in it faded in the background and the noises outside were hushed, Alex was achingly aware of herself. Of how drawn she was to the deep, swirling pools of dark honey staring into her soul, magnetic and mystic at the same time. Of how every nerve and every cell of her body were ablaze, tongues of flame flittering over them, singeing her with a torturous warmth. Of the blaring sound of her pulse pounding heavily beneath the onslaught of his sensual thumb. It was a scintillating torment she didn’t want to end.”
― Mayumi Cruz, It's Not Just Semantics

“She finally came to understand that fear is a curious thing. It can make one hide and scurry away from the object of fear. But it can also give a person courage and strength. Courage to face the very thing you’re afraid of, and the strength to conquer it.”
― Mayumi Cruz, It's Not Just Semantics

“She saw it now. He needed her. Not her body, not for pleasure. But her presence, her strength, her character. He really, truly needed her.
And she loved the feeling of being needed by him. Providing him with what only she can give him: her strength, her positivity, her self. She knew she made him happy, and him being happy made her happy, too. Her own happiness was intertwined with his. Just like his misery. When she hurt him with her words, she inflicted herself with the same pain.”
― Mayumi Cruz, It's Not Just Semantics

“You’re not running around. You’re running away, as you’d always done.”
― Mayumi Cruz, It's Not Just Semantics

“You said you deserve the truth. For the first time in a long time, I’m being honest. I’m honest with you. Why can't you be honest with me? Why can't you be honest with yourself? Why can’t you be honest about us?”
― Mayumi Cruz, It's Not Just Semantics

“It wasn't your fault that she died. It wasn’t Ava’s fault, too, or anyone, for that matter. It's just how things were meant to be. There doesn't need to be a rational explanation for everything. You have to accept that and move on.”
― Mayumi Cruz, It's Not Just Semantics

“Never settle…unless it’s forever.”
― Mayumi Cruz, It's Not Just Semantics

“A feeling so alien persisted inside him. He searched for a word to describe it. The nearest word he could come up with was elation. He was full of immeasurable joy because she was simply there. She was near him, breathing the air he breathes, treading the very ground on which he walks. She was with him, on this island, in this very moment. And somehow, it gave him the most amazing kind of peace.”
― Mayumi Cruz, It's Not Just Semantics

“Green,” he muttered.
“What do you mean?”
"You're turning green, Miss Hernandez."
Feeling insulted, she growled, "What are you talking about? I'm not the Incredible Hulk!"
Chuckling, he shook his head. "No, you're not, thank goodness. But you're green. Green and jealous.”
― Mayumi Cruz, It's Not Just Semantics

“I’m not saying that trusting and hoping will be enough. You have to work together, Alex. Together, you and him. Work on the present, the here and now, despite the odds. Say the words that needed to be said, do the things that had to be done. But only if you’re both completely, totally sure. You both have to be all in.”
― Mayumi Cruz, It's Not Just Semantics

“Once, I told you, ‘never settle unless it’s forever.’ I was wrong, Alex. Not about never settling. No, never about that. We must never settle for less than what we’re worth.”
Tears generously fell down Marjorie’s cheeks. “I was wrong about the forever part. Because it takes two to forever, Alex. You can’t have forever without taking risks, making choices, and working on them—together—for a lifetime. You only have a lifetime to write your own story. Make every second last.”
― Mayumi Cruz, It's Not Just Semantics

“Her lips, which taste still lingered on his mouth. By his normal standards, it was again a fleeting, chaste kiss. But it had struck him with the power of a thousand lightnings.
He’d tasted many a woman’s lips. And for longer periods of time. But they all paled in comparison with her lips. It was like he’d been feasting on sand for the longest time. Suddenly now, he had a taste of a sprinkling of sugar and realized it was what he had been missing, starving, craving for so long.
Now, all he could think of was sand and sugar.”
― Mayumi Cruz, It's Not Just Semantics