Before We Were Strangers: A Love Story

I never really doubted his love for me, but it scared me that he was keeping a safe distance. I needed to protect myself.

We both cried together, surrendering to the reality that we had to accept. No one could change the past or give us back the time we had lost, and there were no words to make everything better. We just had to accept the present for what it was.

‘Poetry is just the evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash.’

sex is perfectly selfless and selfish all at once.

You can’t re-create the first time you promise to love someone or the first time you feel loved by another. You cannot relive the sensation of fear, admiration, self-consciousness, passion, and desire all mixed into one because it never happens twice.

‘I used to think I was poor because I didn’t have any shoes, and then I met a man with no feet.’ ”

You chase it like the first high for the rest of your life. It doesn’t mean you can’t love another or move on; it just means that the one spontaneous moment, the split second that you took the leap, when your heart was racing and your mind was muddled with What ifs?—that moment—will never happen the same way again. It will never feel as intense as

Aletha seemed like someone whose soul was so at peace, like life was no a longer a mystery to her.