LOVE DOESN'T HURT LIKE THAT

If they cheat,

they don’t love you.

Simple.

Love doesn’t come with side pieces and half-truths,

with lies hidden under late texts and gaslighted silences.

That’s not love. That’s disrespect with a pretty smile.

But you stayed.

You told yourself it’s because you love them.

But let’s be real

it was fear.

Fear of being alone,

fear of starting over,

fear of letting all those years go to waste.

You weren’t in love,

you were in habit.

You were in comfort.

You were in “what if no one else wants me?”

You were in “maybe they’ll change.”

Spoiler: they won’t.

They didn’t love you.

They loved the way you kept forgiving,

the way you lowered your standards,

the way you confused loyalty with being a doormat.

You thought love meant endurance

but love isn’t pain management.

One day, you’ll look back

and cringe at the version of you

who wiped tears, made excuses,

and called it “just a mistake.”

You’ll see how gullible that version was,

how scared she was,

how deeply she wanted to be chosen,

even by someone who couldn’t choose her fully.

And you’ll laugh

not bitterly,

but with a “thank God I grew up” type of laugh.

Because now,

you’re learning to choose yourself.

To set standards.

To love yourself so hard,

you won’t accept the bare minimum

from anyone, ever again.

You’ll stop calling trash “potential,”

and stop romanticizing struggle as “loyalty.”

And you’ll realize

the best love story you ever lived

was the one where

you saved yourself.