I love you, don't go.

I don't know what I'll do without you, she said. You have been in my life for such a short amount of time, but I can't remember what it was like to live without the knowledge that you are in the world. I thought I might take whatever I could get, let this relationship be as casual as you seemed to want, just because having some proximity to you was better than nothing. But now that you're ready to move on, and I have no hold over you, no reason to keep you here any longer, I suddenly see what an imperfect arrangement that was. You are about to leave, and I don't know what I'll do without you. I never said it for fear of driving you away, but after today, I will have nothing to lose. And so I'll say it anyway, on the off chance that you might reconsider: I love you, don't go.