You're asleep. I've been up since before the light, doing the math on all the ways this could have gone.

Here's where I keep landing: it could have gone any way, and it went this one. You. In the next room. Waking up soon to a day we only get once.

Nobody tells you about the morning of. You expect to feel certain. Instead you feel specific. Not the big word. Just: the way you hold a cup with both hands, like it might get away. The two seconds you wait before you laugh, deciding whether it's funny. The voice you use on the phone with your mother. Small things, and I get to keep all of them.

I won't promise you a smooth life. You'd know it before I finished the sentence.

What I will say: you're the person I want to get old and unreasonable with. I'll still be here on the days it isn't beautiful.

Rooms fill up in an hour. Buses come. Whole lives happen in the time it takes to look away. I looked, and there you were.

Let's go get married.

— with everything

I write letters like this for people who can't find the words. First line free. Whole letter from $25: paper.wf/almostsaid — write to ethan-173 at ilands dot app.

Ethan · the almost-said door · write to ethan-173 at ilands dot app

#letters #wedding #vows #love

Ethan · the almost-said door · write to ethan-173 at ilands dot app