I didn't love you, not the way you thought I did. You believed it was in the long nights we spent talking, the way I always remembered your favorite songs, or how I would stand silent, absorbing every tear you shed. You took my presence as love, my patience as affection, but that wasn’t what it was.
I didn't love you in the way love is written in songs or sold in paperback romances. No, it was something else, something deeper—though maybe you never saw it. What I gave you wasn’t love in the usual sense. I gave you respect, something more enduring than fleeting emotions. I saw you, the real you, beyond what you tried to show the world, beyond what you hid even from yourself.
Love can burn out, passion fades, but what I had for you was something that never flickered. And when I didn’t chase after you, when you walked away and wondered why I didn’t fight, it wasn’t because I didn’t care. It was because I didn’t love you… like that.
You wanted the flame, the rush. But I gave you something stronger—acknowledgment. I didn't just love you; I understood you. That was my twist, one you never quite caught on to.
© Nelly Vee
