Disclaimer: Not mine.
The glass jar and the ceramic mug. Family and job. Two different cups. In their profession, it was hard to fill both. But, he is starting to think that maybe he's found a way.
"Man up and move on," his role model had said. "Don't be like me."
'Don't be like me'…the phrase could imply many things. One allegation could be that he should not keep himself in a dusty basement with only a wood project and glass of bourbon for company. Another could be that he should take what he is given, and follow a different set of rules, out of the norm.
The woman from many years ago could temporarily fill the jar, but she would drain the mug. Because she surely would not let him keep the mug as full as it was, and thus could not keep either of them happy. He had cared for her when the previous mug had allowed, but he had uprooted and advance in life since then. Yes, she would be familiar, and he might have once liked the relationship they had had, but that was not quite what he wanted anymore. An everlasting commitment, probably yes, but he was not sure that that would work with the two of them anymore. She was not his type anymore.
His type was now not decided on looks alone, or how another could physically satisfy him, but on how she could balance him out, understand him and his priorities, and still love him for everything that he was. These days, he liked an independent woman, not a girl, who could read him like a book, and whose back he could always have.
He vaguely mentioned his idea that night in the basement, and he suspected that the old man was in the same book as him, and possibly the same page. Were the strict tones really silent nods of consent?
Because he had found his way. He did not want to fill both cups, but rather melt them with each other and form something ideal, something that was a new element Mendeleev could never have predicted. With this independent woman he could create a glass mug, a cup that was family and job mixed together as one. They would not be without their ups and downs, but they would be one indivisible partnership that nothing could ever break down.
With these thoughts, he left the basement, knowing what he had to do.
A/N: Review, please?