What is Love - A 750 word story

The court mandated 12 weeks of counseling was halfway done and not a single thing had changed. She offered all of the usual "I only love you", "It never meant anything", "It was only sex" and "It'll never happen again" and he was sick of listening to it.

He didn't know if she meant it or not, but it didn't matter, their marriage was dead and nothing she could say or do would bring it back to life again. The only thing he wanted from her was to accept that and sign the papers so he could move on with his life.

He sat there, half listening to her drone on, wishing she would realize that there was no hope of reconciliation, when she said, "I know you...probably better than you know yourself, you still love me and I know we can work this out and be happy again."

"You know me, huh?" he said, cutting her off, "I'll tell you what, since you know me sooo well, I will ask you ONE question about an important part of our marriage. If your answer is close to matching mine then I will do my best to put this behind us and make this marriage work. BUT...if it doesn't then you agree to sign the divorce papers."

She hesitated for a moment, her face clouded with uncertainty as she considered his proposal. "Fine, but how do I know you'll be honest about the answer?"

"Easy, I will ask the question and we will both write down our answers and give them to the counselor. The counselor will read our answers out loud and make the decision on if our answers are close to matching. Does that sound acceptable to you?"

"Yes, that's fine with me. You'll see, I know you, we're meant to be together."

He turned to the counselor, "Is this OK with you?"

The counselor thought for a moment before replying, "This is very unusual request, but yes, I agree.

As the counselor handed them both a piece of paper and a pen, she stole a look at her husband and wondered if she made the right decision when she saw the slight smile play across his lips as he asked his question; "What is love?"

Relief washed over her when she heard his question. 'This is going to be easy', she thought as she wrote down her answer and handed it to the counselor.

After he had handed in his answer, the counselor picked up her paper and read it out loud.

"Love is what you feel when you've found the person you want to spend the rest of your life with. They are the first person you think of when you wake up and the last person you think about before you go to sleep. When you're with them, you don't want to be anywhere else and when you're not with them, you wish that you were."

She shrank back when he actually laughed out loud at her answer!

"That's what you think love is? How often was HE the first person you thought of when you woke up next to me? Or the last person you thought about when you went to sleep in OUR bed? How many times were you with me but wanted to be with HIM instead? Frequently, I suspect. How many times when you were with HIM did you want to be with me instead? Probably NEVER! You say it 'never meant anything', but by your own definition you loved him!"

"May I continue?", the counselor interjected before picking up the other piece of paper and reading it out loud.

"Love is NOT a feeling...Love is a CHOICE. Love is when you choose to make someone else's wants, needs and feeling more important to you than your own. Love is when you choose to do what's best for them even if they never know it. Love is choosing to treat someone with kindness and respect when you are angry or hurt...even though you don't feel like it. Love never chooses to take pleasure in purposefully doing something that will hurt another. Love chooses to be faithful and honest. THAT is what love is to me."

The counselor put down his paper and thought for a moment before replying, "It's clear to me that you two have completely different views on what love is."

With that, he stood up, looked at his soon-to-be ex-wife, said "Sign the papers bitch!" and walked out.