Page 178 of Paint the Town, Dove
Imagine going through what we went through, being intertwined all our lives through love and loss, to being something more – a spark lit on fire, a volcano ready to erupt.
That was us.
How could you navigate the flood? The overflow of emotions?
Ryden tugged me closer to him. “I can’t get enough of you.”
I wanted to say it back. When he told me he loved me at dinner last week, when he asked me to behis. Paparazzi swarmed the outskirts of Le Pavillon. It felt unnatural…
It felt right.
I said yes, of course I said yes, andof coursethe cameras caught the moment before I could even process his lips on mine.
He pulled me behind a back alley then, fingers tangled in my hair and said, “This is our life, Dove. We chose to escape, and we accept the wins and the losses. But right here,”he kissed me softly, “this is where we won.”
You could say this is what I loved about our story.
So many of our moments remained private.
Our first date was never announced, never publicised.
Our first moments of intimacy were sacred and special.
No one knew anything about us, butus.
We fell into each other’s love, adjusting to the best of our abilities to a new tide. But truthfully, nothing groundbreaking had changed, at least not like Ifearedit would.
Nobody viewed us differently. In fact, many people thought we’d been an item since the beginning.
We have, he’d said.We just didn’t know it until now.
I smiled at that. He was right. God, he was so right.
There was never a monumental love declaration, not when you’ve been in love since the dawn of time.
You can’t pinpoint love like that. You just feel it. Every day.
In the way you remember the splatter of freckles across their back.
In the way you remember how they eat their bagels, what they like in their tea.
The way they shut their eyes when they hum a tune you’ve never heard before, familiarizing yourself with the lullaby in which you fall asleep to every night.
It’s their voice in your head, in your heart, every moment…
And you don’t remember when it got there, only that it did.
That was our love.
Slow, steady, patient, fierce.
An eagle and a dove.
A gentle bird, and a protective beast.
We were both at the same time, and that’s what made us strong. Special.
Infinite.
