Sweethearts don't just spring up overnight as it takes years and years to build up a relationship that is strong and steady. It's something that at once seems delicate and steady, strong and fragile, gentle and powerful.
Sabine is still smiling as she kneads dough, relaxing under the constant push and pressure that it requires of her, as she glances up to see her husband back from the front to work inside the bakery, giving her a chance to switch out with him. It was a slow day, and naturally, that meant that Sabine got to step into the domain of the kitchen and really work among flour, yeast, dough, and any number of fresh ingredients. It was on slow days like this one that she got to melt into her work, but it was also slow days like this one, that gave her a moment to quiet thought to reflect on just how much she loves her husband.
It's a steady love that grows stronger and stronger with the passage of time, so there's always more to marvel at, more awe to be struck by, more joy to savor every second spent with him. Joy isn't always an emotion, it's a way of life, and everyday with her husband provides that rush of joy, the steadfast hold that keeps her strong when things aren't going quite so strongly.
Once she's watching the dough rise, she glances back at her husband, hard at work on what looks to be Macarons, and the quiet works through him in ways different than it does her. He is so focused that conversation does not rise between them, and so she just watches, let's Tom be as absorbed in his work as could be. It's a sort of joy and passion that's always been strong for him, since he was a kid.
Sabine loves that Tom's living his dreams, that he's happy, and that makes her heart swell with love, even as she finally takes the now baked bread out, and moves to reclaim the counter space, always aware that even slow days had customers. Today's quiet as Valentine's Day draws nearer, still a week off, means that she'll need to plan ahead, and today might just be the day that they celebrate.
Picking out flowers that speak delicately and beautifully for her, that she'll gift to her husband and baking him something homemade with more love and delicate attentiveness than most would expect beckon to her as she debates whether today will be an early close for the bakery or if there's a chance that she'll find a way to celebrate her and her husband's love, that fostered and grew with the years, today.