{"id":400,"date":"2025-09-12T09:35:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T09:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/demo.everestthemes.com\/viable\/demo\/?p=400"},"modified":"2025-09-22T06:40:05","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T06:40:05","slug":"duis-efficitur-nulla-ac-imperdiet-vehicula-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.xsslovedating.com\/?p=400","title":{"rendered":"Duis efficitur nulla ac imperdiet vehicula"},"content":{"rendered":"
The first frost of winter covered the vine-wrapped bench, turning the bare tendrils white as lace, when Marisol and I stood there, our breath fogging the air. She\u2019d been quiet all morning, her black curly hair tucked under a woolen hat, her left hand\u2014with my curl-shaped ring and her grandma\u2019s band on the right\u2014clenched in her coat pocket. \u201cMy sister called,\u201d she said, her voice soft, like she was afraid to break the quiet. \u201cShe thinks\u2026 she thinks we\u2019re moving too fast. That I\u2019m \u2018replacing\u2019 grandma by wearing your ring.\u201d<\/div>\n
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I felt my chest sink. We\u2019d been so happy lately\u2014weekends making hot cocoa in her apartment, evenings walking through the park with our hands tucked together, her curls bouncing under the streetlights. But now, that doubt\u2014like the frost on the bench\u2014had settled between us. Duis efficitur nulla ac imperdiet. The phrase popped into my head, a Latin line I\u2019d seen in an old poetry book at the bookstore: \u201cNothing is efficient in the face of obstacles.\u201d It felt like that, suddenly\u2014like every good thing we\u2019d built was being slowed down, blocked, by something we couldn\u2019t control.<\/div>\n
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\u201cI told her she\u2019s wrong,\u201d Marisol said, turning to me, her dark eyes glistening. \u201cBut\u2026 what if she\u2019s not? What if I am rushing? Grandma\u2019s only been gone a year, and here I am, wearing another ring, laughing like nothing hurts.\u201d I reached out, brushing a strand of curly hair that had fallen from her hat, my fingers warm against her cold cheek. \u201cLaughing doesn\u2019t mean you\u2019re forgetting her,\u201d I said. \u201cIt means she taught you to keep going. To find happiness even when it\u2019s hard.\u201d<\/div>\n
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We sat on the bench, careful of the frost, and I pulled a crumpled piece of paper from my pocket\u2014the page from that poetry book, with the Latin phrase underlined. \u201cI found this a while ago,\u201d I said, handing it to her. \u201cIt says \u2018Duis efficitur nulla ac imperdiet\u2019\u2014nothing works right when there\u2019s a barrier. But maybe\u2026 maybe we can be the ones to break it. Not by rushing, but by showing her\u2014showing ourselves<\/i>\u2014that love isn\u2019t a replacement. It\u2019s an addition.\u201d<\/div>\n
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Marisol traced the words with her finger, her rings glinting in the weak winter sun. \u201cAddition,\u201d she repeated, a small smile tugging at her lips. \u201cLike adding hot cocoa to a cold day. Or a sketch of my curls to your book. Or\u2026 your ring to my hand, next to grandma\u2019s.\u201d I nodded, taking her hand in mine, our rings brushing together. \u201cExactly. Your grandma wanted you to find someone who makes you feel home, right? That\u2019s what I want to be. For you. Not instead of her\u2014with her memory.\u201d<\/div>\n
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That afternoon, we went to Marisol\u2019s sister\u2019s house. Her sister, Lila, opened the door with a tight smile, but when she saw Marisol holding my hand, her expression softened. We sat in the living room, drinking tea, and Marisol pulled out the photo of her and grandma from her wallet\u2014the one with the silver ring on grandma\u2019s finger. \u201cGrandma gave me this ring to give to someone who feels like home,\u201d she said, holding up her right hand, then her left, with my ring. \u201cThis isn\u2019t replacing her. This is honoring her. Because she\u2019d want me to be happy. And I am\u2014with him.\u201d<\/div>\n
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Lila looked at the photo, then at us, and sighed, a smile breaking through. \u201cI\u2019m sorry,\u201d she said. \u201cI was scared for you. Scared you\u2019d get hurt. But\u2026 I can see it. In the way you look at each other. She\u2019d be proud, Mar. Really proud.\u201d Marisol\u2019s eyes filled with tears, but this time, they were happy ones. She hugged her sister, and I stood there, watching, feeling the barrier\u2014like the frost on the bench\u2014start to melt.<\/div>\n
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That night, we went back to the park. The sun was setting, painting the sky orange and pink, and the frost on the bench was starting to thaw under the warm light. Marisol took off her hat, letting her black curly hair fall free, and leaned her head on my shoulder. \u201cDuis efficitur nulla ac imperdiet,\u201d she said, her voice quiet. \u201cBut we broke it. Didn\u2019t we?\u201d I kissed the top of her head, breathing in the scent of her lavender shampoo mixed with the cold air. \u201cWe did,\u201d I said. \u201cAnd we\u2019ll keep breaking them. Together.\u201d<\/div>\n
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A week later, we brought a small planter to the vine-wrapped bench\u2014a tiny ivy plant, with a tag that said \u201cFor Grandma.\u201d We buried it in the soil next to the bench, Marisol\u2019s hands gentle as she patted the dirt down. \u201cShe\u2019ll watch over it,\u201d she said, squeezing my hand. The ivy\u2019s leaves were bright green, a pop of life against the winter brown, and I knew\u2014like the Latin phrase, like the frost, like Lila\u2019s doubt\u2014this obstacle, too, would fade. Because love wasn\u2019t about being efficient, or easy. It was about being there, even when things were hard. About melting the cold, one small, warm moment at a time.<\/div>\n
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Now, when we sit on the bench in winter, we bring that ivy plant inside when the frost is bad, then set it back out when the sun comes up. Marisol\u2019s curls still bounce when she laughs, her rings still glint in the light, and her sister comes over for hot cocoa sometimes, bringing her kids, who love to trace the curl on Marisol\u2019s ring. Duis efficitur nulla ac imperdiet. Nothing works right with obstacles\u2014but love, we learned, doesn\u2019t need to be \u201cefficient.\u201d It just needs to be there<\/i>. To hold on, to warm up, to melt the frost.<\/div>\n
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I looked at Marisol, her curly hair catching the winter sun, and smiled. We\u2019d broken the barrier. And we\u2019d keep breaking them\u2014together, with grandma\u2019s memory, with our rings, with the ivy that kept growing, even in the cold. Because that\u2019s what love does. It finds a way. Even when nothing else works.<\/div>\n
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The first frost of winter covered the vine-wrapped bench, turning the bare tendrils white as lace, when Marisol and I stood there, our breath fogging the air. She’d been quiet all morning, her black curly hair tucked under a woolen hat, her left hand—with my curl-shaped ring and her grandma’s band on the right—clenched in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":437,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xsslovedating.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xsslovedating.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xsslovedating.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xsslovedating.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xsslovedating.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=400"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.xsslovedating.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":590,"href":"https:\/\/www.xsslovedating.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400\/revisions\/590"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xsslovedating.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xsslovedating.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xsslovedating.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xsslovedating.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}