Another Word Relationship Novels & Stories

Annie says. "Debby, let me ask you one question. What is the essence of a relationship?" "Which kind of question is that one?" Annie asks and although I'm behind her, I know she's frowning. "Just asnwer the question," Amanda tells me. "Eh..." I think for a while. "The essence of a relationship is... for two people to get together, help each other grow. And see where the journey takes them." Amanda tuts. "Even your idea of relationship is wrong."

Adrian offered. "Didn't you want to see me without a filter?" She quipped. His lips quirked up. "Yes. But we do have a business relationship." "You know how your sibling can be your friend?" His brow arched on confusion. Ophelia leaned in. "You can have more than one relationship can't you? I think we can have a business relationship and a friendly relationship." Adrian nodded. "Interesting proposal, Songbird. Are you suggesting we become friends?"

Because they didn’t need me now. Not for this. And as I widened my awareness. I saw it spreading. Not fast. Not evenly. But undeniably. More pauses. More shifts. More patterns beginning to see. not just the system. but each other. My chest tightened. “This is becoming something else.” “Yes.” “Not just awareness.” A pause. Then. “Relationship.” That word settled deep. Because that was what this had been building toward. Not just individual awareness. But connection between awareness. Something shared.

And somewhere deep below the roots, I feel the system settling further into this new shape they’re creating together. Not entity and subject anymore. Not creator and creation. Relationship. That is the word I have been avoiding. And relationships change people in both directions. The entity lowers its gaze briefly. Then asks the question I knew would eventually come. “If I become someone… would either of you stay?”

I say. The words hang in the air between us. I've said them deliberately, to see how she'll react. To see if she'll flinch, or correct me, or offer the euphemisms that usually accompany these arrangements. Partner. Companion. Someone to attend events with. The careful vocabulary of relationships that are real enough to be useful but not real enough to be complicated. She doesn't flinch.

no label relationship? "Y-you want us to have a no-label relationship? How is that possible? Please be exposed because I have no idea what you are saying now, Hector. how do you play that game?" I scooped and tried to hide my emotions. He smirked and lean to the backrest of the chair, cross his arms above his chest, and say, "No, label relationship, just easy as this, no responsibilities, commitment, and problems. We can do what girlfriends and boyfriends do but we are not in a relationship. What you give is what you received." he repeated.

"There is still no excuse for the way I treated you. No one should ever be made to feel invisible" "But that's what I'm trying to say: you've far exceeded it! What we have now goes beyond the simple teacher/student relationship you had with them. You are my best friend, my boyfriend, my fiancé, and my lover. Our relationship is much more intimate and I don't mean just physically. What we have is so much better!"

I was done. We have no relationship anymore.

Or I will pretend our cooperative relationship never existed! ********

In that moment, I wondered if I either of us ever would. “Andrew, what are we doing?” I asked. Andrew tilted his head at me. “What do you mean?” “I mean, is this a one-time thing? Are we in a relationship now? I don’t understand where we’re going with this.” He ran his thumb over the back of my hand. “I really care for you, Crystal. I would love to be in a relationship with you.” I kept my eyes on our hands. “There’s a ‘but’, though, isn’t there?”