“
If you think of it all this way, then it’s like neither of us did anything wrong.
You just found me in the wrong universe. That’s all. This is, as they say, the darkest timeline. Everywhere else, nay, “everywhen” else— us in the Civil War, us in Ancient Egypt, us in the swinging ’60s— we are happy.
If this theory holds, well, by the law of averages, there had to be one universe— just this one— where we don’t end up together. Here and now just happens to be it. If you think of it this way, nothing is our fault.
So see, that explains everything. We’re not together anymore because of the multiverse.
Well, isn’t that comforting?
If you’re sad, do like I do and just think of the other ‘verses. The ones where I believe in love and where I don’t hate myself and where I never feel the need to kamikaze relationships. A universe where we can have nice things. It’s helpful, right?
Because you could have loved me forever. And maybe in another universe, I let you.
”“That’s all anyone wants from anyone else, not love itself but the knowledge that love is there.”
“Morning is my favorite time of day. It’s like everything’s starting out fresh and new. I begin to get sad around noontime, and I hate it when the sun goes down. I live with those same feelings day after day.”
“My alone feels so good, I’ll only have you if you’re sweeter than my solitude.”
“I think you take everything too seriously. Loving another person is a wonderful thing, and if that love is sincere, no one ends up tossed into a labyrinth. You have to have more faith in yourself.”
“The doubts. You had to save me from my constant doubts. That deep-seeded feeling that I wasn’t good enough for anything, I was a fake at my job, I wasn’t your equal, my friends would forget me if I moved away for a month. It wasn’t as easy as hearing voices, nobody was telling me this. It was just something I knew. Everyone else was playing along but I was sure that one day they would all stop.”
“Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.”
“‘I’ve never once thought about how I was going to die,’ she said. ‘I can’t think about it. I don’t even know how I’m going to live.’”
“I need to learn how to stop destroying myself, stop being hard on myself and be nice to myself. I need to keep telling myself that I need to keep wanting something, something nice, something warm, more than just a fur coat because I can make other people happy. I can understand other people’s pain because I can love even after all that is left of me is gone because I have that strength.”
“Yes, I was infatuated with you; I am still. No one has ever heightened such a keen capacity of physical sensation in me. I cut you out because I couldn’t stand being a passing fancy. Before I give my body, I must give my thoughts, my mind, my dreams. And you weren’t having any of those.”
“It’s just hard to see a friend hurt this much. Especially when you can’t do anything except ‘be there.’ I just want to make him stop hurting, but I can’t. So I just follow him around whenever he wants to show me his world.”
“I used to feel so alone in the city. All those gazillions of people and then me, on the outside. Because how do you meet a new person? I was very stunned by this for many years. And then I realized, you just say, ‘Hi.’ They may ignore you. Or you may marry them. And that possibility is worth that one word.”
“I never felt open in any way. I would never impulsively ring people and assume that they’d want to see me, or just go ‘round. I always had to sit down and think very hard before I knocked on anybody’s door. And consequently, I never really knocked.”
“Stars should not be seen alone. That’s why there are so many. Two people should stand together and look at them. One person alone will surely miss the good ones.”
“I love you— I do— but I am afraid of making that love too important. Because you’re always going to leave me. We can’t deny it. You’re always going to leave.”
