Maybe it was all a fantasy.

Maybe I just had this romanticized version of you in my head

that you, time and again, have fallen short of 

and, though not entirely your fault, may never really live up to.

You may never come close to my idealized version of you.

Still you would have been enough. 

In the end, all I ever really wanted was for you to show up.

Even that was too much to ask for. 

"...is like asking why you love Christmas or a summer night or why you love your dog. You can point to the reasons, but the reasons aren't really the point. You just love it. And that's how love works."

-Ty Shaw. Vengeance. 

Tauriel: If this is love, I don't want it. Take it away, please. Why does it hurt so much?

Thranduil: Because it was real.

-The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies.

"Betimes, our paths are laid before us by powers greater than our own. In those moments, it's our task to make our feet go where our hearts wish not to tread. No matter the perils awaiting us on the way."

-The Stranger. LOTR: The Rings of Power.

"You deserve someone who treats you like you matter everyday, not just when it's convenient to them."

yep.

"I am never happier than when I am alone in a foreign city; it is as if I had become invisible."

-Storm Jameson

"For what matters in life is not whether we receive a round of applause; what matters is whether we have the courage to venture forth despite the uncertainty of acclaim."

-Amor Towles. A Gentleman in Moscow.