Letter for Emma Swan, left on her desk at work
Emma-
I need to tell you how I feel, and I need to do it in a way that allows us both to keep a clear head about it.
The first thing that I need to tell you is that I love you. That is why I don't want this to be the end of us. Why I want us to find a way to make this work. When you asked why I was with you if I thought you wanted to be with someone else, I shouldn't have said I didn't know. I reacted poorly to a bad situation.
Right or wrong, when I said I was frustrated, it's what I meant. Maybe that's what happens when two stubborn people who both want things their way try and make a life together. In this case, made worse by your refusal to answer what seemed to me like a completely harmless question, but which must not have seemed that way to you, or you would have answered it. And here's why I felt so frustrated.
I knew I loved you long before the first time I said it. I didn't want to say it earlier than that because I didn't want to scare you off. Even after that, you were (in your terms) my girlfriend, and I was "the guy you were seeing." Every step that our relationship progressed after that was one that was initiated by you; I didn't even suggest something and wait for you to agree to it, it didn't come up until you mentioned it. If it took months, I waited months. Except for one case.
I still want to marry you someday, Emma. I know you said that someday it would happen, but lately I can't keep myself from wondering what if 'someday' never happens. I know that I said if 'someday' never happens, that's fine too, I can live with that, and I still mean it. What I want is a life with you, for the rest of my life. Someday I want to be able to stand in front of our family and friends and share that with them. That's what it is to me, affirming to the world the commitment we've already made to each other. Letting everyone know that we have faith in ourselves, in our ability to make it last.
I know you've said that the past is behind you, and I've seen plenty to indicate that it is, but there's one thing that's still bothering me. You've said you're keeping the car for sentimental reasons. Which sentimental reasons? You got it from him -- but you've both moved on. It was home for a time. A home with him. You have another home now, one with walls, and a family. I can't help but wonder what it is you're really holding on to.
I hope this is a place for us to start from, instead of a place for us to end.
I love you.
Graham
I need to tell you how I feel, and I need to do it in a way that allows us both to keep a clear head about it.
The first thing that I need to tell you is that I love you. That is why I don't want this to be the end of us. Why I want us to find a way to make this work. When you asked why I was with you if I thought you wanted to be with someone else, I shouldn't have said I didn't know. I reacted poorly to a bad situation.
Right or wrong, when I said I was frustrated, it's what I meant. Maybe that's what happens when two stubborn people who both want things their way try and make a life together. In this case, made worse by your refusal to answer what seemed to me like a completely harmless question, but which must not have seemed that way to you, or you would have answered it. And here's why I felt so frustrated.
I knew I loved you long before the first time I said it. I didn't want to say it earlier than that because I didn't want to scare you off. Even after that, you were (in your terms) my girlfriend, and I was "the guy you were seeing." Every step that our relationship progressed after that was one that was initiated by you; I didn't even suggest something and wait for you to agree to it, it didn't come up until you mentioned it. If it took months, I waited months. Except for one case.
I still want to marry you someday, Emma. I know you said that someday it would happen, but lately I can't keep myself from wondering what if 'someday' never happens. I know that I said if 'someday' never happens, that's fine too, I can live with that, and I still mean it. What I want is a life with you, for the rest of my life. Someday I want to be able to stand in front of our family and friends and share that with them. That's what it is to me, affirming to the world the commitment we've already made to each other. Letting everyone know that we have faith in ourselves, in our ability to make it last.
I know you've said that the past is behind you, and I've seen plenty to indicate that it is, but there's one thing that's still bothering me. You've said you're keeping the car for sentimental reasons. Which sentimental reasons? You got it from him -- but you've both moved on. It was home for a time. A home with him. You have another home now, one with walls, and a family. I can't help but wonder what it is you're really holding on to.
I hope this is a place for us to start from, instead of a place for us to end.
I love you.
Graham