7. True Love

She was so in love with him. It felt bland and insincere put like that, but she was. She was more in love than she'd ever have thought she could be. Back in the days when she was walking out with Joe, she was convinced that their lack of genuine passion was something wanting on her part. She thought it was some fault in her character that wouldn't let her really be open with him, or even to try to really feel for him. She realised now how very wrong she had been. She loved the man curled beside her, in her bed, more than she loved anything in the world.

Of course, she could kill him sometimes. He drove her up the wall. He was obstinate, stubborn, so convinced of his own opinion. He wouldn't take a telling and he certainly would never admit she was right, which she often was. But still, she loved him.

It was fair to say that she knew Charles Carson very well. You got to know a person pretty well when you spent every moment you thought you could in their company, often letting them kiss you, often smoothing the creases in their brow with your palm. Especially when it went on for ten years. Fifteen years.

She believed everything he said to her. And if she did not believe it, she believed that he was kidding himself as well as her. She loved him for the support he offered her, when more of ten than not he was just as in need of support himself. She loved him for the way he always thought of her first. She wished he wouldn't, it smacked of him valuing her more than he valued himself, but nevertheless she still loved him for it. She loved the way held her on the nights they did have together.

This was true love. And it was as near to being perfect as she'd ever known human love to be.

Please review if you have the time.