Signs Of Affection

   So, I got a text from my boyfriend this morning: "Are we a weird couple since we like being next to each other holding hands and showing affection?" ...Apparently so. He replied to this rhetorical question stated by himself by saying, "Guess so since I wanna be with you more now than a year or so back"... Apparently it had to do with some show on the radio that he only caught part of. And I have no idea what the show said. But, either way, it got me thinking.
   The last year has been a roller coaster ride of polar opposites. This man that used to totally ignore me for hours, and couldn't figure out why I needed held at night, and didn't want to be interrupted by texts at work has totally become someone else. And I'm not sure what happened, but I'm not going to complain either. Somehow something registered that things weren't working. And I'd love to give credit to the couples communication classes (which we dropped out of), or the many couple skills books we looked at (and never actually bought), or the email newsletters we subscribed to (and always deleted before reading), or some other outside help (that we never followed through with). But, in case you can't tell by all the parentheses, I seriously doubt that any of that really made a difference in the long run. The change wasn't some miraculous outside force, but rather something inside of both of us, deciding to make things work. I gave up on looking for something better, and he gave up on thinking the minimum was enough. And somehow we met in the middle.
   It hasn't been a fairy tale, and most days offer new trials to be faced and limits and boundaries to be tested, but that's just how life goes. And yet, he's absolutely right. I miss him more now than I ever did before. And I do feel excited to get home to him. And if I go too long without texting him during the day, he sends me some random message. Sometimes it's an "I love you", and sometimes it's some totally random quirk about traffic or the weather, or about some billboard that neither of us can make any sense of. And most days those random things are enough to bring a smile to my face and remind me exactly how much he wants me to be a part of his life. And that's enough...