Thursday, April 11, 2013

Say Cheese

She wakes up every day looking at the stream of sunlight, obscured by the wildly fluttering curtains because they never close the window. She mixes in drinking chocolate in his milk, four spoons, because he loves it sweet and chocolaty. If she questions how he could ever possibly like something that sweet, he smiles at her and says, "Well, I like you, don't I?"

Every day, she steps out of the shower to see a heart drawn on the steamed up mirror. A perfect, symmetric heart. She checks her phone and sees a "Good Morning :)" message from him. She kisses him goodbye and goes to work, all the while thinking of a way to get him to clean the table after dinner that night.

At work, she hears about how her co-worker's husband surprised her with a vacation. She hears about how wonderfully spontaneous he is. She laughs to herself a little about the silliness of it.

She comes back, late in the evening, finds him waiting. She can sense that he is a little angry; he expects her to be home before him. She apologizes, making an overly cute face till he smiles and gives her a hug. He says he missed her, like the deserts miss the rain. She makes his favorite dish with lots of cheese and watches him eat his plate clean. She smiles at seeing him grin, with crumbs in his beard and his impish smile. She sees him watch the news, as she wipes the table and cleans the dishes.

As she goes to bed, he turns to her and tells her that he wants her to come home early every day. She nods, yes, of course she understands. She assures him that she will come early starting tomorrow. He kisses her good night, hugs her tight and falls asleep.She looks at him for a while, sleeping peacefully, not a care in the world, or at least pretending to not have a care in the world. She gently frees herself from his grip and turns towards the window, away from him. She looks at the moonlight with a sigh and waits for the suffocation to set in...