A Story

A re-telling of a love story.

“I’m done! I don’t want to have anything to do with you!” She said as she threw what was in her hand directly at his face. “What the f**k is wrong with you?”

“Babes? What? Yo knew it was coming. You could feel it too.” He got off his lips quickly before she swung at him again.

“Babe” he said while holding her from behind. Trying to control her violent arms and trying to make her reminded of how loved she is, all at the same time.

“What the f**k” she sobbed. “How could you even possibly think of leaving me? I thought we were going to grow old to together? Don’t you want to do this forever?” And as the words jumped out of her throat she realised just how unappealing that sounded. But her rage couldn’t be contained.

“I’m so mad at you!” She screamed as another electronic object flew towards his head.

Cell phone pieces laid strewn all over the bedroom and emotions were tangibly running high. She was so confused. How could a perfectly good relationship dissolve and disappear over night. What had happened?

As she laid on the bed he tried to console her, but longer than what any other time period felt like, she was simply inconsolable. Her tears turned to screams and back again for the majority of the night.

“Ahhhh! F**k you! Get the f**k out!” And with that he left. Obviously with the door slammed in his face.

She threw herself across the bed, crying so hard that breathing became a very serious challenge. And between her spats of breathlessness she would vocalise her confusions.

“Why? I don’t get it? How could you hurt me like this? How could you be so selfish? Get over your f*****g s**t!”

“I’ve given you so much of me.” She weeped. “I’ve given you such a big piece of who I am for so long, do you really not care? Do you really not appreciate it? Show me that you appreciate? Stay with me and work your s**t out.”

There was a continuation of this breathless self-talk for quite some time until she finally fell asleep. Really that’s all she wanted to do. She was so tired from the day, so tired from his letter and exhausted from their fight.

She woke to an insanely pounding headache that felt like a hangover, but she knew it was from crying so much. In the 3 seconds it took for her headache to kick in she had almost forgotten what happened the night before. She felt spiny, felt off but couldn’t quite remember what had happened. And once it hit her, she couldn’t hold anything back. With her head over the toilet she remembered every little detail clearly and shed a tear at the thought of it being real.

Putting around in her undies she realized that he was actually right there, beside her in bed. He didn’t leave, he just left the bedroom, gave her some space. But clearly slept the night right beside her reminding her that she was loved. That she still is loved. That he will never stop loving her.

After a morning cuddle, almost as if nothing had happened, he got up, got dressed and went to work as if it was any normal Friday. But the elephant in the room said otherwise.

Once he left she felt different. He took something from her that night. That she thought would keep him with her forever. She gave him herself. Every part of herself and in every way. And now it had been taken, stolen and would never be coming back.

“F**k! What the f**k do I do now? Who the f**k am I now?” She cried again.

“Aummmm”, she moaned. “I love Saturdays! I love waking up next to you. Hi.”

“Morning babe.” He said sweetly, slowly coming out of his slumber.

“Have a good sleep.”

“Hmmm hmmm.”

He gave the best cuddles in the morning. He turned her around facing the other way so he could glue his entire body to hers and hug her. Well, it was just a cuddle, but they couldn’t get any closer than this. He slowly woke her and gave her energy with kisses on the back of her neck, on her shoulders and the top of her back.

“Yummy babe. That felt so good.” She moaned, again. “Wanna get up?”

“Ya.”

“Wanna do the farmers market?”

“Definitely!”

That was their Saturday morning ritual. Wake up sweetly together, have cuddles and soft kisses, then get dressed and go to the farmer’s market 3 blocks from their house. She loved this part of the week. She loved walking there with him. She loved seeing farmers and vendors they knew. She loved eating breakfast outside with him. And really, she had always loved going grocery shopping with him. It was the small things that she learned to appreciate so quickly with him. He made it easy to.

“I hate that there’s no good food trucks.” He complained. “We should totally start our own.”

“Aum, yes! We could do an Arepa truck

“Or an empanada and arepa truck

“That sounds so good. There’s nothing like that here. Well, tacos….”

“Ya, but it’s not the same. It’s be so nice to have Arepas for breakfast right now.”

So they ended up settling for a no piggy sandwich from the piggy truck.

The farmer’s market was such a nice place for vegetarians. They really did make it easy on them to eat tons of other delicious non-meat foods. And coffee. There was always really good coffee.

They got their sandwich, split it in half and ate in silence while watching the city wake up. People of all types come to the downtown farmer’s market; it really is a good place for people watching. The dog park was always right next to them and it proved to be entertaining and filled with doggy drama from time to time. All of this while they ate their sandwich that was filled with the best the farmer’s market had to offer. After their sandwich they walked down the entire block that was lined on one side with farmer’s stands and slowly got what they’d need for the next few days.

“Do we wanna make tofu fried rice again?” He asked.

“Ya that sounds really good.” She replied.

They picked up all the necessary ingredients (as well as dessert - which was finished as soon as they got home) and took their time grabbing a coffee and walking back home. Vancouver really was a good city to be a foodie in.

“Are we doing something this Tuesday?” She asked, as she always does, every Monday.

Tuesday was their date night. It was a night that they had both set aside every week to spend time just the two of them no matter what. Whether they hadn’t seen each for the whole week or had spent every day of the week together, Tuesday was their date night.

“Of course.” He always had the same answer to her question, of course, because Tuesday was their date night.

She loved it. It was his way of making an effort and of telling her that this relationship had importance to him. Aside from everything else he wanted in life, this was something he wanted as well and he would made a very conscious effort of keeping it an important piece in his life.

“How was your day babe?” She asked with genuine interest as she does every night. She loves the little things. She loves hearing about his day, what he had for lunch, how productive he was.

“Good. But I almost got hit by a car, twice.”

“What?”

“Ya, My new skateboard is really flimsy so it kept swerving closer to traffic than I thought. A car almost nicked my arm. Oh, and I feel and almost fell right into traffic. It was a little scary.”

“Ya, really!” She sounded relieved that he was still alive.

“How was your day?” he asked politely.

“Well, I didn’t almost die. But it was good. My students were totally into my lessons today and I loved it. It’s so good when I try new things and they actually work.” She replied honestly. She really did love her job and felt rewarded in small daily successes.

“So what do you wanna do for our date night?”

They had a bit of a ritual for their date night - society made it easy to get into this little habit of theirs - and she genuinely loved it. They would have dinner together at the little Italian place that made really good pasta and pizza, then they would go see a movie at the theater right next door. The night was always capped off with a walk home together, talking about the movie for the first few minutes, then simply holding hands and walking for the rest of the way. And once or twice with a beer before getting home.

“Hmmm, I love our date nights.” She said. And she really did. She had always loved going to the movies, it was an amazing escape for her. She loved the stories that were told and how in the theater you can’t help but be surrounded by it. Italian food was also her favorite (except for when he cooked for her, then it didn’t matter what it was, she loved it). She loved getting to have him all to herself. Even if they didn’t have much conversation that night, she knew that it was just the two of them. No other friends to interrupt or take up their time. She also loved when the conversation got good. He had never really been much of a talker, and she knew that before they even got together, but when he did have something to say, she was all ears. He was always very thoughtful before he spoke. Something she admired and something she aspired to. But their meeting is actually quite an interesting story in itself.