Dear Sam,

I stand on the edge of a precipice, caught between hope and despair. Everything I am, everything I have to give is hovering between us, waiting, hoping. It is a gift freely given, without regret, and it waits for acceptance or rejection.

Thus I stand, between an embrace or a blow.

Whichever you decide to give me, I will accept without anger. Just because I feel this way doesn't mean you have to. My love is my own to give wherever I please, and you are under no obligation to return it.

No matter your answer, no matter your choice, my heart belongs to you. It has abandoned me in hopes of a better home.

Your hands are the best home it could ask for.

My heart leapt the moment I saw you. Please catch it and treat it kindly. Hearts are fragile and easily broken, but if you care for them well they will never betray you. They can keep you safe in the darkest nights and during the most terrible of storms. My heart yearns with every fiber of its being to do this for you.

I have seen your heart. It is scarred and damaged, like a well-loved and well-patched blanket that has remained soft and warm despite the use of many years. Let me be the one to patch it from this day forth. Let my love be the stitches that hold it together and keep it strong no matter what holes the world tries to tear in it.

What I am truly asking, at the end of it all, is that you let me love you. My love is unconditional and fearless. Whether you take it or not, it will not falter. It will not hesitate. It will be yours to my last breath and beyond.

I love you.

Never forget that.

Hopefully, lovingly, endlessly yours,

Elle

P.S. The rest is up to you.

***

Dear Elle, Dear Heart,

My Love,

I am not so eloquent as you. My words are rough and graceless in comparison. I do not deserve this gift, but I am not foolish enough to turn it away. Why you would give me such a precious thing, I don't know. I can't promise much, but I can promise to treasure it always.

Yours was not the only heart that leapt. Mine has been in your possession for a long time, but I lacked the courage to tell you. If my heart is well-patched, many of those patches were yours, even if you didn't realize it at the time.

Yours are the arms I will run to on the darkest nights. If we hold on to each other, we can weather anything the world throws at us. Don't tell me that I'm under no obligation to return your love. I've grabbed onto that obligation with both hands and I won't let go.

Everything I am, everything I have, belongs to you.

I love you.

Eternally, breathlessly, achingly yours,

Sam