It didn’t feel like they were strangers who just met a few days ago. In fact, it felt like she had known him for a long time. She was one with him, feeling him, internalizing him, and by opening up his whole life to her, he synthesized their souls and their hearts into one.

Everything has a beginning, you know. Love has to start somewhere. And sometimes, it starts with the physical.

His kiss was unlike the one they shared in the bathroom. This kiss was gentle, deliberately slow, luxuriating in the delicate exquisiteness of her lips, awakening a new set of sensations she didn't know existed until now, coaxing her to respond.And respond she did.

It also didn't matter that she had only known him for a short time. The heart knows no time when it meets its match, its better half, its kindred one, which long ago was planned by destiny and then thrust forward by serendipity in ways she had never imagined.

Love should give one peace, not turmoil; security, not uncertainty; happiness, not anguish; hope, not despair; and contentment, not fear.

Stop running and start feeling.

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.

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.

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.