Forever Faithfully Novels & Stories

Maybe it was the way he talked — confident, cocky even, like he’d already decided I was his. Love bombing? I didn’t know the term back then. I just knew it felt good. He moved fast. Messages turned to FaceTime. FaceTime turned into “Come over.” And “Come over” turned into full-blown obsession — or what I mistook for love. He called me “his peace.” I remember how he’d say it like a confession. “You’re not like the others. You calm me down.” I wore those words like a badge. I started skipping church just to spend Sundays in his bed. I stopped hanging out with my girlfriends, the ones who raised eyebrows and whispered, “Be careful, babe.”

Not broken. But whole. Forever.

Differently. But forever.

he reads, “is to pass to my granddaughter, Sera Calloway.” For one second I let myself feel it — relief, pure and stupid and premature. Vera's mouth flattens. Good. I let myself have that too. Then Mr. Okafor keeps reading, and something in his voice tells me the sentence isn't finished. “—subject,” he says, “to the following condition.” Vera's mouth curves back up. Of course it does. She's not patient because she's a good person. She's patient because she already read this. I'd bet the whole company on it.

"Always?" "Forever."

That we would always be there for each other through thin and thick, through all the seasons. Forever and always. # THE END

Like I plan to do forever. THE END!

Passionate. Forever ours.

Our eternal promise. And nothing would ever change it. Nothing. Ever. For all time. That was certain. That was real. That was home. And I embraced it completely. Now and always. Forever and ever. With my whole heart. My whole being. My whole soul. This was life. This was love. This was purpose. This was everything. Perfect and beautiful and absolutely, wonderfully, miraculously right. Exactly as it should be. Exactly as it would always be. Forever.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

It was this. Each other. Forever.