I see her pain, raw and stubborn, like old scars that won’t fade. It’s a shadow in her, a twist in her. I love her, and so I love her pain, because it’s part of her. Her lost lover haunts her, and she wrestles with the ghost, trying to find answers that aren’t there. I watch her, quiet, while she digs through memories. Her grief is heavy and silent, like the sea.

I know this person will always be in her heart. So I hold them in mine too, the third in our relationship. I make a place for them there, opening my heart, letting them in, finding ways I can love someone I’ve never known. I wonder if I will ever find a place in her heart the way she’s made her way into mine.

This is all new between us, and I know my place—to wait, to be the rock her tides break against. But it’s hard to feel the weight of another’s shadow. It’s hard to want to move forward while her heart is split between now and what came before. So I wait, quiet, and hope. I hope she’ll come through this. I hope we’ll come through this together. And one day, maybe, we’ll look back and see how far we’ve come. Until then, I wait.

By u/tall-frosting950