Forever Is a Long Time

She smiled at him, and kissed him. And then she puffed up her pillow to lean on the headboard, and started to read. On the first page was the caption: "Love Letters to Laura." He didn't interrupt, he curled close to her and just basked in her proximity.

She cried when she read. It was a silent cry, there was just too much feeling to keep inside, and it had to overflow somewhere.

It was absolutely beautiful. He described her so lovingly, and just when she thought it was too praising, or put her on some unrealistic pedestal, there was something to tilt the angle again. Something to show in true depth how well he knew her, and what he felt for her. There were scenes from their relationship, and some of them she hadn't thought of for a long, long time, and now they came back to focus in mind blowing detail. Just like the scene with the mirror had done.

Finally she reached the end. She put the papers away, and rolled over to look him in the eyes. She looked for a long time, looked at the love in his eyes, the acceptance, the understanding.

She leaned closer and kissed him.

"You wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, sweet man," she said quietly. "You are just..."

She paused, at a loss for words. There was just nothing profound enough to express her appreciation of him.

"Wonderful?" he suggested with a small smile.

She laughed, and pushed him a little.

"You really don't give a crap about my breasts, do you?"

"Well, I loved your breasts. And now I love your one breast, and the one you don't have. But I'd much rather have you, and no breasts, than face cancer again. I just really, really don't want to lose you."

He touched the place that had been her breast, and fondled it. It still made her flinch for him to touch her there, but she could tell he meant what he was saying.

"Well, if I got rid of the other one as well I wouldn't have to worry about breast cancer anymore," she said. "Or think about prosthetics. Or then doubly so. But I've been thinking I probably don't want an artificial breast. I mean breast reconstruction surgery. I've had a lifetime's worth of body issue crisis over the last few months, and I'm still not sure which way up I'm gonna emerge from all that. I never realized how big a part of me my breasts were until I lost one."

"Okay," he said solemnly. "Well, I promise you I will love you, breasts or no breasts. I would love you, if we could never have sex again. I just love you."

"Oh, really?" she said, her heart melting. "And I love you, all of you with all of me. Forever."

"Forever is a long time."

"I don't think it's long enough."

They kissed, and kissed, and kissed. They weren't in a hurry. It was hours until they could go back to see little Laura again, in the evening visiting hour, and all they had on their todo list until then was love.