“Sometimes, people arrive in your life just to quietly prove that not everyone leaves.” –Beau Taplin

My Interpretation: Orion did not save me. He did not try to. But he stood close enough to remind me that not all men take. Some just stay.

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🌌 Orion

My neighbor. My maybe. My mirror in the quiet.
He never asked for access – but he always left the door cracked.
& in a world full of people demanding to be let in, he waited outside until I was ready.

Orion has always existed on the edge of my world.
Close enough to feel safe.
Far enough to feel chosen – never expected.

He saw things.
The exhaustion.
The way Cade turned silence into tension.
The way I laughed too hard when I was unraveling.
He never asked for details.
He just… stayed.

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He mowed lawns – never mine, but it is ‘fine’. Made small talk.
Let me drop off banana bread like that meant more than it probably did.
He let me be weird. Sarcastic. Loud.
He let me be me.

There is a tenderness there I have never spoken aloud.
Not because I am afraid, just because I don’t know where to put it.

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Sometimes, I drive past his house & think about asking for a hug.
I imagine what it would feel like -arms around me, probably crying, probably stammering something half-coherent.
But I do not ask.
Because vulnerability is a language, I am still learning to speak out loud.

Still… I think about it.
& that should count for something.

Orion has always known when things were heavy.
When Diana was sick, he drank with me.
Not to get drunk. Not to fix it.
Just to be there while I unraveled in a way that did not require explaining.

He is the kind of man who lets you scream “I do not need a man!”
Then watches you load a washing machine up the stairs by yourself.
Judges you a little.
But not enough to make you feel small.

He lets me make up dumb nicknames for him.
He does not flinch at my chaos.
He does not ask me to be anything I am not.

He is… kind.
Not loudly. Not performatively.
Just consistently.

If I needed him in a panic, I know I could call.
But I probably will not.
Not because he would not show up –
but because asking is still hard for me.

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He is, in some ways, the male version of Wren.
But quieter. Older (than Wren). Gentler in a way that does not announce itself.

& that kind of presence?
Is a gift I will not take for granted.

Xoxo ♡