"How did you know?" he stroked his thumb across the back of her hand.
She tore her gaze away from the television and lifted her head from Lionel's shoulder, the confusion written clearly on her face.
"How did I know what?"
"About me. That Derek chap always fancied you. And you two were quite compatible." He paused. "How did you know you wanted me- that I was the right one?"
She smiled, looking into his eyes. "The laughter."
"What?"
She giggled. "You made me laugh. You always made me laugh. Whether you meant to or no."
She gently laid her head on his shoulder again. It had always been her favorite place to rest, favoring the warmth of his body over the softest pillows they owned.
"There was something about you that made me…" she shrugged, struggling to find the right word. "…I don't know. You made me happy. Like nothing I'd ever felt before. It was strange and wonderful and frightening and brilliant… all at the same time. I would get this incredible sense of relief. When I was with you, I felt like everything in the world was right. I didn't care about anything else. Derek was alright in his own way, but he didn't give me the same feeling."
"Oh? And what feeling would that be?"
She bit her lip. "It's sort of difficult to explain. I'd get this warm feeling deep down inside of me and it spread all over. I always thought it was the happiness filling me up. Sometimes I felt like I would burst with it all. And whenever I felt like that… I would laugh. It was all there, bubbling up inside of me." She shrugged. "It had to get out somehow, I suppose."
He chuckled, pulling the duvet up a little further. "And all this time I thought you were laughing at my jumpers."
"No." She giggled. "Well… maybe the green one."
"What- the one I wore for our second date?" He felt her head nodding against his shoulder. "My mother sent me that one."
She snorted. "Should have sent it back."
"Hey."
She felt his shoulders shaking beneath her head.
She smiled as the familiar warmth grew deep in her belly, spreading from the top of her head to the very tips of her toes.
Her grin grew wider until she could no longer contain the feeling within. It burst out of her in the most incredibly wonderful way and the air surrounding them vibrated with the sound.
Laughter.