Love Language

This is the face I chose to look upon and live with forever, she thought. He lay sleeping on the sun lounger beside her, or dozing perhaps, relaxing after the mornings’ renovation activities. His love language was most definitely acts of service. He was always busy – making things, fixing things and she was grateful for all his hard work. It meant they were able to update their home at minimal expense – cost of labour almost zero.

They had been in the house exactly a year….. a tumultuous year but the improvements to the house were many, far more than what may have been achieved during a “normal” year. There was very little he would not turn his hand to.

He was definitely sleeping, she thought as a quiet snore interrupted her musings. She was tempted to video him to prove he actually did snore – he never believed her when she told him. Thankfully it wasn’t often and usually dissuaded by a quick poke to the ribs and a grumble of acknowledgment when he rolled over.

He looked at peace and rather grimly she wondered if he would look like this in death. She often thought of him leaving her. He was twelve years older so it was perhaps inevitable, even though he joked about her having a “nasty accident” down the stairs. Just jokes, to lighten the mood when she got melancholy and morbid. She dreaded that day when he was gone and knew she wouldn’t cope, wouldn’t manage without him, certain it would cause her heart to actually break. Even more so she knew it was the loneliness she would struggle with, she was not a person who enjoyed solitude, she was drawn to people, needing company.

This face she gazed upon had changed a little over the years, wrinkles had formed, hair had greyed. They had of course both changed in many ways, both physically and mentally. They had grown and morphed and merged into each other, becoming a couple that could almost read each other’s thoughts – their life together was comfortable, easy, blissful. She had always felt loved by this man, cherished and treasured.

She felt she had been lucky meeting him. Worlds apart, a decade between them, living on opposite sides of the world, their paths should never have crossed, the chances infinitesimal and yet fate had chosen their union. Forbidden love – but the magnetic pull of their hearts eventually was too much to deny – the pain of breakups worth the promise of the future.

They were so different … her an extrovert, he quiet and thoughtful and yet their partnership worked. No marriage is perfect but they never gave up, they always talked and mostly respected each other’s views. Any disagreements were short and sharp and minor.

He was awake now. Starting to fidget – he could never sit still for long. He turned to look at her and once again she fell, hard and fast, tumbling into those blue eyes, her love welling up in her own. “Love you babe” she murmured …. and she meant it, with every fibre of her soul.