love

When I met SO (we worked together) I thought he was cute.  I had a boyfriend at the time, however, and being inherently loyal, I didn’t go much past the initial observation that SO seemed nice, friendly, and professional.

Over time, as we worked together (our offices were next to each other), I came to know him better.  I saw a person who was not only nice, friendly, and professional, but who also laughed at the same things I did.  I started to understand why everyone invariably liked him.  I liked his voice, his smile, and his attitude to life.  I also thought he had a cute bum.

We began to spend a lot of time together.  I’m not exaggerating when I say that my work was suffering, and that it was, for a few months at least, merely an opportunity to see SO, talk to SO, and smile adoringly at SO.  Somewhere along the line I misplaced the boyfriend I’d had when I started the job.

We got together.  Our first date was dinner and a movie.  It was very romantic, a movie we’d both really wanted to see: Kill Bill, Vol. II.  When he dropped me off, he didn’t give me a kiss goodnight.  He just looked at me, shyly.

Very shortly I was spending every waking moment at his house – every night after work, every weekend.  I realised that he was kind and compassionate to everybody in his life, his parents, his step-parents, and my parents, including my mother, who can be highly stressful to be around. My friends loved him.  I also realised at about this point that we shared the same values and goals in life. 

A couple of things happened – he lost his job (due to a new manager) and my father was diagnosed with leukaemia.  He consoled me, and immediately contacted his second job and asked for more hours.  To help with things, I moved in.  We spent six months saving as much as we could on our reduced income, and seeing as much of my parents as we could.

Dad got sicker and sicker, and finally died.  Life became very tough.  SO had managed to get a job in his field by now, which was a financial relief, but I was falling apart.  I became very difficult to live with, crying all the time, not able to get out of bed and, eventually, suicidal.  During all of this, SO was a rock.  He held things together under enormous pressure, and managed to keep whole-heartedly loving me in the process.  It was during this time that he said to me, ‘I love you more now than when we first got together’.

We will have been together for four years next month.  During that time, we have been through a lot.  I couldn’t have done it without him.  He is everything to me.  I’m so lucky to have him in my life.