#7012forever

His shy glances followed overtures that led to awkward conversations. Instances where he sometimes wished the ground would open up and swallow him whole. But he pressed on because he’d learned long ago persistence was the only way he’d get something in life. When he made her laugh his heart stuttered in his chest. He’d done that. He made her face light up and a fierce pride ignited within. In his clumsy way he sincerely offered his heart, though at the time, she didn’t recognize it for the gift it was.

Her own heart was shut away, aloof but only because she wasn’t one to reach out. Didn’t really know how. She smiled for the cameras, her thoughts on looking pretty because that’s all that had ever been expected of her. His attempts to gain her attention warmed something inside her but the idea of fiction becoming reality was never something that crossed her mind. It was a role. They were too different for it to be otherwise.

Over time he understood his efforts were fruitless and edged away. He continued to flirt and play the game but that moment of hesitation, of waiting for her reaction was gone. He no longer watched her as close.

Things changed in her life. Being on the show challenged her not just physically but opened her heart to others in a way it never had before. She learned she was more than a pretty face. It factored into the end of a relationship that never felt more than hollow to her in the first place.

Emerging from the remains she turned her face to the man that had warmed her like the sun. And she saw him for the first time. Really saw him. He was patient and loyal, passionate about the things that held his interest. But his passion for her had cooled, tempered by her time with another. He may have opened his heart to her easily at first but he was no fool.

His interaction with her became habitual, lacking emotion. It left her to be the one extending herself trying to fit against his side once more. Years ago it hadn’t been her way to approach others but she was no longer that person. She didn’t blame him for not realizing right away. It was difficult to see change when you were too close. And she was happy just being with him, even if only on Mondays. She would wait for him to notice her once more.

It took a little while. More than she’d hoped actually which stung her pride but figured it was her due. He saw her efforts though, and the smile that wasn’t caused by him but rather for him. When he began to reciprocate things were different. What once was a current that flowed only one way for him or her became something that ebbed and flowed between them.

Now when they looked at one another there was a bond. A strength that the other’s presence afforded just by being there. She knew him and he knew her and only the two of them knew the truth of what they meant to each other. Somehow over the years they’d grown together instead of apart. There were marriages that could claim less.