It calls after midnight

and stays until sunrise.

The kind of conversation that makes you glow.

The kind that reminds you why you once cared.

The kind that stimulates your mind instead of your body.

And for a moment, it feels easy.

Familiar.

Safe.

But growth has memory.

I remember showing up once.

I remember getting dressed.

I remember sitting in an Uber headed toward hope.

And I remember no one showing up on the other side.

That wasn’t heartbreak.

That was information.

So now I sit in clarity.

I can enjoy a conversation

without surrendering my boundaries.

I can glow

without going back.

Because I know me.

When I love, I love blindly.

When I give, I give completely.

And I am no longer willing to break myself

just to prove I can rebuild.

I have built too much already.

A book.

A brand.

A future.

A peace I fought hard to earn.

I don’t have time to romanticize potential.

I don’t have room for patterns I worked to escape.

If something is meant for me,

it will meet me consistently.

Not nostalgically.

And this time,

I am not choosing comfort.

I am choosing myself.

That’s firm.

That’s decisive.

That’s poetic without being dramatic.