Its funny. No matter how hard you try you cant close your heart forever. And the minute you open it up you never know whats going to come in. But when it does you just have to go for it Because if you dont theres not point in being here.

The Universe is very very big.It also loves a paradox. For example it has some extremely strict rules.Rule number one Nothing lasts forever.Not you or your family or your house or your planet or the sun. It is an absolute rule. Therefore when someone says that their love will never die it means that their love is not real for everything that is real dies. Rule number two Everything lasts forever.

Voicemail 1 Hi Isabel Culpeper. I am lying in my bed looking at the ceiling. I am mostly naked. I am thinking of your mother. Call me.Voicemail 2 The first minute and thirty seconds of Ive Gotta Get a Message to You by the Bee Gees. Voicemail 3 Im bored. I need to be entertained. Sam is moping. I may kill him with his own guitar. It would give me something to do and also make him say something. Two birds with one stone I find all these old expressions unnecessarily violent. Like ring around the rosy. Thats about the plague did you know Of course you did. The plague is like your older cousin. Hey does Sam talk to you He says jack shit to me. God Im bored. Call me.Voicemail 4 Hotel California by the Eagles in its entirety with every instance of the word California replaced with Minnesota. Voicemail 5 Hi this is Cole St. Clair. Want to know two true things One youre never picking up this phone. Two Im never going to stop leaving long messages. Its like therapy. Gotta talk to someone. Hey you know what I figured out today Victors dead. I figured it out yesterday too. Every day I figure it out again. I dont know what Im doing here. I feel like theres no one I can Voicemail 6 So yeah Im sorry. That last message went a little pear-shaped. You like that expression Sam said it the other day. Hey try this theory on for size I think hes a dead British housewife reincarnated into a Beatles body. You know I used to know this band that put on fake British accents for their shows. Boy did they suck aside from being assholes. I cant remember their name now. Im either getting senile or Ive done enough to my brain that stuffs falling out. Not so fair of me to make this one-sided is it Im always talking about myself in these things. So how are you Isabel Rosemary Culpeper Smile lately Hot Toddies. That was the name of the band. The Hot Toddies.Voicemail 20 I wish youd answer.

I really dont even know you and yet in my life you are forever entangled to my history inextricably bound.

Many many readers have written asking me wistfully about the nature of Sam and Graces relationship and I can assure you that sort is absolutely real. Mutual respectful enduring love is completely attainable as long as you swear you wont settle for less.

Just for future reference dont use words like love anymore. Its a very sensitive word and it wears out quickly. Romeo barely says it but John Hinckley filled up a whole journal with it. To put it into your terms its a currency thats easily devalued. Pretty soon youre saying it whenever you hang up the phone or whenever you leave. It turns into an apology. Then its an excuse. Some assholes want it to be a bulletproof vest dont hate me I love you. But mostly it just means--more. More more--give me something more. A couple of years from now when youre on your own completely if you really fall in love if it really comes to that--and I pity you if it does--you have to look right down into the black of her eyes right down into the emptiness in there and feel everything absolutely everything she needs and you have to be willing to drown in it Kevin. Youd have to want to be crushed buried alive. Because thats what real love feels like--choking. They used to bury some women in their wedding dresses you know. I thought it was because all those husbands were too cheap to spring for another gown but now it makes sense love is your first foot in the grave. Thats why the second most abused word is forever.

Ive never been the one. Not for anybody.He closed the distance between them. Youll get used to it. He tipped her face up to his kissed her.Why Why am I the oneBecause my life opened up and it flooded with color when you walked back into it.

When forever becomes a place...when forever ceases to be just a word when it ceases to be just a measurement of timebut instead becomes a place where soul mates can dance to the song in their hearts... that is a reflection of true love.

Hes dozed off again but I kiss him awake which seems to startle him. Then he smiles as if hed be happy to lie there gazing at me forever.

I told her Id wait forever for her but that was before I found somebody else whod give me a ride home.