You need me as much as I need you. That makes us equal partners in my book. Well, your book is just wrong.

It seemed Barrons had finally gotten his cake and eaten it too.

All I need is a badly mangled, irate sentence stalking me.

Nobody looks good in their darkest hour. But it's those hours that make us what we are. We stand strong, or we cower. We emerge victorious, tempered by our trails, or fracture by a permanent, damning fault line.

They had each other and there was a love between them that would withstand anything. Alina and I had always intuited, with no small wry pique, that, although our parents adored us and would do anything for us, they loved each other more. As far as I was concerned, that was the way it should be. Kids grow up, move on and find a love of their own. The empty nest shouldn't leave parents grieving. It should leave them ready and excited to get on with living their own adventure, which would, of course, include many visits to children and grandchildren.

Do you think love just goes away? Pops out of existence when it becomes too painful or inconvenient, as if you never felt it?

You are what you are. Find a way to live with it.