The Asking 🌹
When love rewrites the ending
📖 Behind the Story
I’ll be honest—I don’t like Romeo and Juliet.
Not because the story isn’t powerful. But because we’ve romanticized tragedy for so long that we forget something important.
Love doesn’t have to end in death to matter. It doesn’t have to be doomed to be real.
So when I heard Peter McPoland’s “Romeo & Juliet,” I knew I needed to flip the script.
The moment the name “Rose” came to mind, everything clicked. Of course. A rose—beautiful, yes, but also thorned. Protection and softness in one. The whole proposal speech built itself around that metaphor.
I wanted Rose to acknowledge the Romeo and Juliet story—to honor what it represents about intensity and passion—but then ask for more. Ask for better. A love that doesn’t burn out in five days but builds a life across decades.
The whole story takes place in a single moment—Rose on one knee, Evelyn’s stunned silence, the question hanging in the air. Public proposals always carry this extra weight because everyone’s watching, but in that pause before the answer, it’s just the two of them.
I kept returning to touch—trembling fingers, the box opening, eyes meeting. The physical tells us what words can’t. Rose’s shaking hands reveal more about her vulnerability than any internal monologue could.
The structure mirrors the emotional arc: nervous opening → steady speech → vulnerable crack in her voice → the enormous pause → joyful release. That pause is everything. It’s where all the fear lives, all the possibilities, all the years of their relationship compressed into a single breath.
There’s something about saying “I seek forever” instead of “I want forever.” Seek feels more active, more deliberate. It acknowledges that forever isn’t something you find—it’s something you choose, every day, together.
The closing deliberately doesn’t show us what happens next. We don’t see the ring go on, the kiss, the celebration. What matters is that moment of choice—Evelyn’s “yes” rising clear and joyful to the sky. That’s the whole story. Everything else is just an epilogue.
This is for everyone who’s tired of tragic love stories. For everyone who wants to rewrite the old narratives into something that chooses life, chooses joy, chooses more.
💭 A Question for You
What story have you been told about love that you’d like to rewrite?
If you enjoyed this story, consider becoming a paid subscriber. You’ll receive exclusive Studio Letters, craft breakdowns, and premium zine collections that dive deeper into the creative practice behind these pieces.