What about this?" I held up a battered copy of Beauty and the Beast. "It sounds romantic." Xavier wrinkled his nose. "Disney... I don't think so." "Why not?" "Because if anyone found out, I'd never live it down." "I won't tell if you don't," I pleaded, and Xavier shook his head in defeat. "The things I do for you," He said with an exaggerated sigh.

Still the hottest angel I know," he murmured. "It's beyond me how you're still on staff.

The righteous ones are always exhausting to have around.

Some say we can't choose who we fall in love with; love chooses us.

There was nothing else to do but call upon the Creator, praying, begging, pleading, bargaining—anything to make him protect Xavier. I couldn’t have him ripped away from me like that. I could survive emotional turmoil; I could survive the most intense physical torture. I could survive Armageddon and holy fire raining down upon the earth, but I could not survive without him.

One of the most frustrating words in the human language, as far as I could tell, was love. So much meaning attached to this one little word. People bandied it about freely, using it to describe their attachments to possessions, pets, vacation destinations, and favorite foods. In the same breath they then applied this word to the person they considered most important in their lives. Wasn’t that insulting? Shouldn’t there be some other term to describe deeper emotion?

What about this?" I held up a battered copy of Beauty and the Beast. "It sounds romantic." Xavier wrinkled his nose. "Disney... I don't think so." "Why not?" "Because if anyone found out, I'd never live it down." "I won't tell if you don't," I pleaded, and Xavier shook his head in defeat. "The things I do for you," He said with an exaggerated sigh.