Ever After Always Quotes
"Because that’s when I understood how numb I’d become, how dangerously deep I was burying my pain."
"For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. The less you demand of something, the less it gives back, the weaker it becomes, until one day it’s a shadow of itself."
"Crying isn’t weak. I know this. Rationally. But I also know the world doesn’t reward tears or see emotionality as strength."
"Marriage isn’t the end of the story, it’s the beginning. And it demands the effort of both partners to make a success of it."
"The real me cries and speaks when her feelings aren’t tidy but instead a messy mix of emotions."
"Life’s hard enough without this brutal financial pressure society wields via toxic masculinity."
"Struggling will never make you less of a man or less of a husband. Struggling means you’ve been brave."
"Love doesn’t abandon, love doesn’t leave the welfare of its wife and child to the whims of the outside world. Love protects and provides and prepares for the worst."
"All I’ve ever wanted is to protect her happiness."
"The past few months, I’ve witnessed the core of my marriage dissolving, and now I don’t know how to build it back."
"Sometimes, we see what we want to see rather than what’s really there."
"The truth is that we change and grow significantly in our adult years, and to stay close with a committed partner, we have to keep learning them."
"Intimacy isn’t intuition. It isn’t even familiarity. Intimacy is work."
"We can’t know that until we take action to understand our partner, particularly as they change to the point that we feel we don’t recognize them."
"I would have lived in a flimsy cardboard box, under a shitty run-down bridge, with nothing but the clothes on my back, so long as it was with you."
"All I want to do is take that sadness away, for you to smile and sing and be happy."
"I remember everything about that date, Freya. You felt like the missing part of my life."
"I want to give you everything you deserve. I want to lay the world at your feet."
"I’ve felt empty and cold and lonely because you weren’t here, not really, Aiden."
"I’ve felt replaced by your work, and I dug at you about that. It’s been hard not to take it personally."
"I’ve always been really fixated on work and climbing the ladder here."
"We’re about to go on vacation with all of her family, though, and she’s pretty desperate to keep up appearances in front of them, doesn’t want to worry her parents since it’s their celebration. So now’s not a good time."
"Who’re you kidding? There’ll never be a good time."
"I’m going, yes. For her. And I do like her family. I love them, actually. They feel as close to family as I’ll ever get."
"Your old man failed you. That caused you to struggle. Which is wrong. But…well, if it means anything to you, I’d say you can be sure he’s somewhere struggling, too."
"Because he’s spent every day since he hit the road missing out on you. He’s got to live with the consequences of his choices. He didn’t get to see you grow up or take pride in how great you turned out or witness how strong you are. He won’t get to recognize himself in you or meet your wife or hold his grandbabies."
"I still get myself a hot fudge sundae, on those days when it’s all just too damn much. I sit and eat it in the car and remind myself how far I’ve come, every hurdle I’ve surmounted. I tell myself, if I made it through that, I can make it now, too."
"I’m okay. But I am looking forward to some time off."
"I clung to those bright moments between so many nights watching her from behind the crack in my bedroom door with a view to the kitchen, where she stood, head hung, shoulders shaking in silent sobs."
"I was seven the first time I caught her crying like that. And that’s when I swore the moment I could, I’d make life better. For her. And me. For anyone I ever loved."
"I’m sure I’ll screw up again somehow, but I get it now, Freya. I’m committed to changing it."
"You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope."
"Your worries run deep because you love deeply."
"So can a plant that hasn’t been pruned. Doesn’t mean the roots are bad."
"Strength lies in how openly you bare your heart, not how deeply you guard it."
"Sometimes love is a splint, an arm to take, a shoulder to cry on—helpful but not the healer itself."
"I can listen no longer in silence. I must speak to you by such means as are within my reach."
"And because I’m experiencing an uncharacteristically reckless moment."
"We’ve changed and how we want to better understand what that means for loving each other."
"What you both just told me demonstrates that you’ve arrived at an important milestone in reconciliation: building back trust. You’ve made peace with the very unsettling truth that people who love each other can hurt each other deeply, often without meaning to."
"What you’ve decided is that you can see the beauty in those stitched-up, glued-together places, that you’re willing to learn for the future."
"Sex is vulnerable. If you’re ready for that intimacy, I want the conversation and dialogue flowing honestly and trustingly."
"It’s the pedagogist in you, constantly questioning my methods."
"You’ve been in talk therapy since I’ve known you. You are a hell of a lot better at articulating your emotions than almost all men I know."
"I have no idea what to make of that. I’d guess it’s a matter of his anxiety and how it’s impacted his sex drive."
"I’m so sorry, Aiden. I’m sorry I kept it from you. I’m sorry it’s my reality right now."
"We’ll find our way through this. As lovers. As a family. Please, please know, my only sadness right now is that you’ve held this in, all on your own, when I could have held it with you."
"I love teasing you, but tonight I can’t make you wait, Freya."
"And then we were on vacation, trying to keep it together for your parents, and I couldn’t risk upsetting you."
"I love you for exactly who I am. She’ll be patient with me, believe in me, desire me, in all my imperfection."
"I want to believe the best in you. So…consider this your second chance, Tom."
"It’s not redundant," she whispers. "It’s a choice, a belief. I choose you, my ever after, believing our love will sustain us, always."
"You’re just…knuckleheads, all of you. Lovable, impossible knuckleheads."
"Love’s true test, the measure of its strength, is its bravery to be honest, its willingness to face the hardest moments and say, Even though there’s nothing to be done, at least I have you."
"Thank you. I’ll treasure it forever," he whispers, kissing me deeper, promising more.