And you are just as perfect as you were yesterday.
I know if you heard me say it, you'd blush and tell me that I was being silly. You'd smile and I know you'd remember because you'd kiss my cheek and say a little 'thank you' under your breath because you know I'd hear it.
I know if I asked you to dance with me in the middle of our living room, you'd do it because it makes me smile. You'd let me put my hand on your waist, where it doesn't travel lower because I cherish these moments. I know you don't like dancing as much as I do. I know you only dance with me because it makes me happy. You'd put your arms around my neck and maybe you'd step closer, maybe you wouldn't because you're laughing too hard at whatever song I put on the wireless. I love to make you laugh and music always does.
I don't know if you can remember it, but I do, and I think that's what matters. There was a day in the market, once, when you were looking for potatoes because it was almost Christmas and you were wearing this emerald scarf that made you look brilliant in the snow. You thought I was looking at the furniture down the street because we were just moving into our home (do you know that I love buying furniture with you?) but I wasn't. I was just watching you.
The first time we slept in our home—and it was our real home, with complete rooms and bad paint jobs and lumpy mashed potatoes for dinner—we didn't do anything special. You put on one of my shirts and let me stroke the hair back from your face while we lay under the covers. You smiled after you had closed your eyes because I was still talking to you, whispering to you, and I don't know if you know how important that is to me, talking to you before you sleep. I like knowing that I'm one of the last things you're thinking about before you sleep.
You roll over on your side too much when you sleep. I like it when you find me in the darkness and curl up against my side, your fingers gripping at the fabric of my clothes like a small child. But when you roll over, it gives me the chance to brush away the hair from your neck and I can be so close to you. Every now and then, I think that you're awake and you let me stay like that. You know how much I crave tenderness, you know how much this means to me.
Sometimes I wonder what you think when I'm sleeping and you're not. I know it happens, I know that you wake up in the middle of the night every weeknight like clockwork because that's how your body works. Do you look at me and smile in that special way you do for me? Do you push your hair back from your face like you do in the morning and lay back down to rest? Do you curl into my side like you do unconsciously, or you do just stare at me, maybe in that way I catch you doing over meals?
If you didn't hate it so much, I'd tell you that you're beautiful every hour of the day. I'd tell you that your hair is perfect, that the color of your eyes is just right in the morning sunlight, that no matter what you do, you are always the ingredients to lovely. I don't care if you're covered in dirt, or if you're sick with the flu. I don't care if you're heaving into the toilet or if you're crying while you make us breakfast. You always captivate me and isn't that what matters?
You are comfortable. I don't mean that you are soft, pillow like, though sometimes you are (and sometimes you let yourself be). I mean that you are pure, sound, you are right. I know that people feel like this when they're first together, or maybe for a while after that, but I've been with you for so long and still, my belief in that is unwavering. I know that you are everything that I was meant to have.
I know this because you talk to me without hesitation, without censorship. You take my hand when I'm not fit for something and you make everything seem that much less petrifying. You tell me good morning, you wish me goodnight, and if you're home from work before I am, sometimes you don't bother giving me a kiss. You just say a little 'hey' and if anything had ever said more than that in the world, I need to know what it is.
You are everything.
And you are just as beautiful as you were yesterday.