Episode 625: You Can Have It All

"Yeah," Quent agreed, though it wasn’t so much the taste of the pasta that he enjoyed, as touching Justine’s wrist. He still liked touching her and being with her as much as he had the day he met her. That was what he liked most about their anniversary, the realization of how much he still loved her.

"The food is good," he said, "the restaurant’s nice, but being with you is all that matters to me." It was a sappy enough sentiment to make him blush. Quent wasn’t ashamed though, just the opposite he was proud of how much he still loved her, proud their marriage was intact, proud of all that they’d weathered.

Justine set down her fork, rested her chin on her locked fingers and gazed at him in such moon-eyed fashion that Quent blushed again.

"Do you know how much it means to me to hear that you still want to be with me?" Justine smiled in a way that suggested she might just as easily shed happy tears. "I wanted my promotion, but at the same time I was so afraid it would change me, that the things you were worried about would come true, that I’m enough like my dad that my priorities would get all out of whack like his are. But they haven’t. I could be working late tonight, but I’m not. I chose to be here and celebrate our anniversary. This is where I want to be."

"No one’s more pleased than I am that I haven’t woken up one morning next to the female version of your father," Quent chuckled. "Thankfully that hasn’t happened. You didn’t even force this tie on me; I inflicted that torture on myself."

His wife giggled. "You know, you would be getting lucky tonight even if you wore ratty sweatpants."

"Now she tells me." Quent joked, though he quickly sobered. "I actually like to make the effort once in awhile. I like to let you know that you’re worth it to me, that I’m willing to live outside my comfort zone for you, just like you do everyday because you married me."

Episode 626: Everyday