Dominique

“But we were in love,
or at least I believed myself completely to be.
I craved [her] presence for no other reason than to have it.
It was certainly friendship too.
This intimate companionship
with someone who knew me in a way that no one else did.
It was a heighten state of friendship.
Maybe it was also a bit of infatuation.
But what I knew for sure was that it was also love.
Maybe love was some combination of friendship and infatuation.
A deeply felt affection accompanied by a certain sort of awe.
And by gratitude.
And by a desire for a lifetime of togetherness.”
― Chinelo Okparanta, Under the Udala Trees