The One I Love

I've been saying for years now that one of the supreme advantages of being in a long-term relationship is the ability to fall in love with the same person over and over. It's comforting, yet strangely, every time it happens it sort of takes me by surprise.

Sometimes when I wake Jeff up before he's ready to get up, he swats at me and grimaces and groans. But sometimes he'll wake for a moment, open his eyes just a crack, see me and smile. In that moment, his brain is working on just the basics: His heart is beating, he's breathing, he's digesting. Yet, he has the reserved energy to smile. At me.

Of course, he's off to sleep again in an instant. But for that brief moment, I know he loves me. He feels safe. He feels happy. And that's pretty cool.