datenight

"It is nice to see you again!" I peered out from behind my book. It was as if I was trying to sound interested in talking to the man I love, Joe. I knew he could hear the sarcasm in my voice. A quick smile and a gentle shake of his head brought him closer, plopping down on the couch beside me. It had been a while since I was enveloped in a Twilight book, and I was loving the release it brought to me.
"You know you only read those books four months ago," he reminded me, knowing that probably wouldn't sway me much. The look on his face now seemed to jovially say,"I don't know what to do with you." I see that same look when I tease him or make him laugh at something that he would have never thought funny before he met me four years ago.
"Has it been that long?" I wondered. "It seemed like forever ago I read them," I confided trying to think back 4 months ago. So many things had happened in the past year. I mused if I could get off reading a few more hundred pages.
"Wouldn't you like to read a book too? Wouldn't that be a good date night?" It was a silly question I had asked. He had just finished a book of his own and was ready to wind down and focus on me.
"Well, you could read and I could watch a movie and blare it," he said chuckling. He knew I wouldn't go for that. It wasn't without great effort that I made sure the house was very quiet so that the girls would go to sleep and I could get some free time.
A smile flashed across my face. "Well, why don't you let me sit in your lap while I read. That would be spending time together!" I had hoped the close contact would be enough for him to be satisfied.
"No, I want quality time," he said with an eyebrow raised and a hopeful smile. Man, why did I have to spend the last 4 years preaching the point of quality date nights? An ideal we are working toward, but not quite yet reached. The look on my face must have read a little sadness at the possible thought of leaving "Bella, Jacob, Edward, Jackiomo...and whoever else is in those books," he had said earlier. But he knew I was hooked and that it would be hard to entice me any other way.
He looked at me for a few seconds deliberating. Then with a sigh of defeat, and then with humility in his voice said, "Go ahead and read your book."
"No, Joe. I don't want to. I want to spend time with you." That was hard to say. Every page in New Moon seemed to be good. Never any right place to stop. But I was beginning to feel a little guilty now. He was sitting there waiting patiently, expectantly. Joe should have wanted to spend time with me. It was only natural. Twilight was taking most of my time not spent on the children or the running of our house since last Monday.
He looked forward pursing his lips, thinking. He then turned his heard towards me decidedly. He opened his mouth. The next thing he said was so characteristic of himself. The man I loved, who loved me. Who wanted to show me, to make sure I understood in many was that he would slay a dragon to protect me and not carry me off afterwards if I didn't want it. "Jenni I want you to read it. Because when you read it, you are happy. And when you are happy, I am happy." I did not doubt his sincerity. It was coming from a man who learned though experience that I could be fickle and pouty. I was beginning to get used to this esteem. It used to make me more guilty when he spoke like that. Guilty because it was a ploy I used sometimes to make him do what I wanted him to. No, but when he used it, it wasn't that way, layered up in other meaning like when I used it. He meant it, and he wanted me to be happy.
I gave a slight smile and I looked in to his liquid topaz eyes. (Something I had discovered when I looked at them closer the other day.) I knew he would let me read it and not complain.
I was defeated. I couldn't read the book. An acknowledgement of his love that often trumps mine.
I looked over at the book as if to let it know it would be staying there the rest of the evening and turned back to Joe. "I am not going to read the book. I love you too much. You are way too important....So what do you want to do?" A sly smile warmed up across his face. He knew it would be a good date night. A quality one.