Lover Unbound

She could love him and wait for him on the far side of life. Because love, after all, was eternal and not subject to the whims of death.

"None of that. We're not sad. You and me? We're not sad. We don't do sad."

"I'm going to love you so good and so long you're gonna be convinced no earthly thing could have brought us together."

"I love you. And I'm going to keep loving you even after you don't know I exist."

This was real-life cocoa. The kind you gave someone you loved because you couldn't think of anything else to do and both of you were a mess. It was the kind you stirred while your gut was knotted and your mouth was dry and you were thinking seriously of crying, but you were too much of a male for that kind of display.

No one lived through this kind of agony.