26 Comments
User's avatar
User's avatar
Comment deleted
Nov 4, 2023
Comment deleted
Expand full comment
Brooke Solis's avatar

Kelly, you. Thank you. Always always always 🖤 xx

Expand full comment
Rachel Maiyun's avatar

Hmmmm so beautiful 🔥✨ I could see each word in my mind, taken on the journey of your past. What an incredible story teller you are, my heart relates to it all from lovers of the past ❤️

Expand full comment
Brooke Solis's avatar

Rachel, reading this comment made my day. It is always such a huge compliment to know that my work takes the reader on a journey, which is a big desire of mine. So thank you for that and for this. 🖤

Expand full comment
Jeffrey Streeter's avatar

So is so good; it flows so well and kept me wanting to read more.

Expand full comment
Brooke Solis's avatar

Jeffrey, thank you so much. I’m thrilled you enjoyed it!

Expand full comment
Gwen Yi 🌻's avatar

“The goodness, the sweetness – too sweet, too sticky. Like a mouthful of yellow honeycomb, it sat close to choking. I broke up with him over the phone I think.” Brooke, oh Brooke. You can break up with me any which way if it means getting art like this made about me 🩷🌶️🤧

Expand full comment
Brooke Solis's avatar

Me, over here with pink cheeks. 😭

Expand full comment
Holly Tuxworth's avatar

I love how you weave depth and simplicity so beautifully. How this little interaction opened up a whole cinematic world of past adventure and reflection, and you took us all there with you. 🐎

Expand full comment
Brooke Solis's avatar

Holly, thank you so much for this reflection of yours. Truly. As a writer, it’s a beautiful thing to know I was able to take you with me.

Expand full comment
Kat River's avatar

Oh my heart! 😭🥰

Expand full comment
Brooke Solis's avatar

Kat, I’m so thrilled you enjoyed it! x

Expand full comment
Kat River's avatar

My phone notes are full of old lover stories. I’m yet to share. ✨ love reading them!

Expand full comment
Lisa Post's avatar

Absolutely loved this! It made my heart race faster, I couldn’t wait to find out what he said, what you said! This could so be turned into a chapter in a racy romance novel! It’s funny, I had a recent encounter with an ex... also over dm. I felt there was so much more ‘truth in the silences’ like you said. So much more emotion within the words we do not say. Such a funny life. 💫 this was brilliant. Subscribing now ~ Lis x

Expand full comment
Brooke Solis's avatar

Lisa I’m so thrilled you loved this. And what a compliment! Truly! It is such a strange feeling to have old lives and new ones overlap, and so much you just don’t, and can’t say, sit underneath. Silence is brimming. It really is a funny life. I hope to write my way through it to figure it all out. Thank you!! x

Expand full comment
Ashley Izsak's avatar

Beautifully written Brooke. I can so relate to the feeling of knowing he’s out there still and it being rather comforting. I just met up with my highschool boyfriend last month. We see each other every ten years or so as he lives across the world now. It’s a different kind of remembering and feeling - this was almost 25 years ago.

Expand full comment
Brooke Solis's avatar

Thank you so much Ashley. Deeply. And it really is. Time changes so much, it’s nice to know that they’re still out there. Oh I love that you recently met up with your high school boyfriend - that’s such a beautiful thing. There would be so much shared nostalgia for another time, especially knowing each other in school.

Expand full comment
Rodrigo Lopez's avatar

How beautifully written Brooke.

You have a gift.

Expand full comment
Brooke Solis's avatar

Rodrigo, this is an incredible compliment. Thank you.

Expand full comment
Violet Farraday's avatar

I swear, your words are one of the closest things I have to religion.

Expand full comment
Brooke Solis's avatar

Violet you almost killed me (in a good way) with this sentence.

Expand full comment
Susy's avatar

Oh the imagery in this!! “Past love speaks in silences and what is never said can be translated into a truth, of sorts.” 😩🤍

Last year on our way to Burning Man, our RV broke down in the middle of nowhere Nevada. Luckily there was a little town nearby, so we dropped off the RV to get worked on & we hung out at a small candy shop. I’m walking down the aisles with my 1 year old and I see him. An old lover standing in line, waiting to pay. In that moment, all the memories started flowing through: Laying my head on his lap by the fire place as he fed me strawberries & read me poetry, our relentless desire to share amazing music with each other, the tenderness . . . I didn’t have the heart to go up to him & say hi. I hadn’t seen him in over 7 years, I had a child now & my husband was sitting on one of the tables. After we left, I received a DM from him asking if it was me. We briefly (& very respectfully) caught up. I told him about being on our way to BM & our RV breaking down. He was a fire ranger working & living in that little town. Then we wished each other the best and that was that. It’s such an interesting, lingering feeling that those instances leave. Stories of alternative lives that the mind will play in.

P.S. the millennial in me loved reading the word “Skype” in there. Some just won’t get it, but those who do know the hold it has on us 😂🤍

Expand full comment
Brooke Solis's avatar

SUSY. You. You know you always get into my heart and soften it. Thank you.

And your story! I was absolutely swept away in it. It can be such a jarring moment to see someone you used to know. They sort of flutter to the back of your mind and then you see them and unlocked memories start sailing. This is such a beautiful little story though. I love how much respect the past and the present. Who you are now and past desires. But I completely and totally understand the feeling of alternative lives. It’s so strange, because no matter the choices we make, there will always be alternative lives.

And Skype!! Hahaha oh I loved that software. Long before iPhones we were on out computers Skyping. I can still remember the logo 😂

Expand full comment
Jess Minjon's avatar

Ooof loved this! So bittersweet.

Expand full comment
Kerani Arpaia's avatar

You paint this picture so evocatively, I can taste it. The dust, the sunshine, the sweetness, but also the stickiness, like trying to scrub honey off your fingers, the residue left by sugar you didn’t want.

Expand full comment
Lola James's avatar

wow these piece is sooo stunning!

Expand full comment
Bee's avatar

Eeee this is so soft and beautiful! Truly a look gorgeous reminiscence and testament to that past love. You captured it wonderfully. ❤️

Expand full comment