he’d loved the feeling of coming to an agreement with another living thing, of understanding each other’s needs, giving space when it was time for it, and pulling close when it was needed.

“Love means constantly saying you’re sorry, and then doing better.”

A place where everything is familiar but nothing belongs to me.

shirt rippling to show off slices of his low back and

The feeling of being so grateful to have something worth missing.

I understood, then, the immense honor it is to hurt like she does. To have loved someone so much that the taste of maple syrup can make you cry and laugh at the same time.

“Love means constantly saying you’re sorry, and then doing better.”

“Maybe I used to think there’d be a perfect time or place. But now I think, if you really want to be with someone, you don’t wait for things to be perfect.”

My best friends taught me a new kind of quiet, the peaceful stillness of knowing one another so well you don’t need to fill the space. And a new kind of loud: noise as a celebration, as the overflow of joy at being alive, here, now.