What I love

Chapter 1: Heartskip and butterflies.

I was never a believer in silly terms they used for someone in love at first sight. What were those phrases? Your heart will skip a beat and your stomach will swarm with butterflies? Was that it?

Never mind what the phrase actually is, but I used to never believe in it. To me, if your heart skipped, you'd die. If you got butterflies in your stomach, you better call a doctor. Simple as that. Most of my encounters with love at first sight people have been them hitting on me or my friends who married within the first year they've met. Amazingly, my friends who are like that stay together more often than not. Those who hit on me? I tell them they better find a doctor for their skipping heart before they need it for a broken nose, which normally makes them runoff. My friends had told me to lighten up, give those people a chance and find someone to spend my life with. Yeah, no thanks. I'd rather be alone than settle on strangers who have love at first sight...

Of course, that changed..when love at first sight happened to me, and you were the reason behind it.

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Life before you was a blur, time went so fast. A couple of days I swore I woke up and the next thing I knew, I was in bed ready to sleep. I didn't change my routine or add anything new. What few things did change day-to-day didn't affect the blurriness, sometimes it made it worse. The blurriness was worse those seconds leading up to you as if my mind shoved everything out of the way to make sure I saw you. God, did I see you.

I'll never forget that day because of that brief clarity I had. I was on my normal walk to work with one of my friends, a co-worker that just happened to stick around and we had things in common. The blurriness muddled her voice and everything around us, the coffee I had was even dull despite the sugar and milk in it. Everything just grayscaled. I tried focusing on my friend's words, my tired eyes seeing her but the details fogged. A frown, a sip of coffee, and my mind declaring defeat for today, when I noticed something out of the corner of my eye. I'll never forget that feeling, even with how long ago it happened. What happened was something I can never manage to describe even if I tried to write it down, something would always be missing. When I try, all I can do is say it was a feeling of rightfulness, a purpose being fulfilled. That I was right where I should be. The brief clarity, the sudden color of everything, the overly sweet taste of my coffee. Holy crap had I put way too much sugar in that thing, I had nearly spit it out but I was too focused on you. Your beauty mesmerized me, my eyes glued to your effortless form. You didn't even notice me as you walked by but boy did I notice you. I saw so many firsts and last of things, a better life than what I had dulled myself into, this was a nightmare compared to what you allowed me to see. I couldn't just let it go right by me but..you were gone. Before I could wrap my head around what happened, the bubble of clarity popped, you were gone and my friend was pulling me away, asking what had made me stop. I couldn't explain it to her, never have been able to, I said it was nothing but in the back of my mind I knew I had to find you again.

I had spent the rest of that workday dreaming and hoping to find you again. It was strange, no one questioned the look I had, the distant gaze out the window to the outside world, wishing fate would allow our paths to cross again. On the walk home, I rushed. I didn't even let my friend catch up to me because I was in such a hurry to find you. I wanted to catch you like this was my last chance to. The closer I got to home, the more I realized how stupid I was being. Rushing home, not being aware of what's around me and yet searching for someone I didn't know. I was going to need to be calm about this, no more rushing around. The next day, I was disappointed to not find you. Even as my routine was the same as the day before, you were nowhere to be found. It made me sad, an emotion I try to avoid within the numbness of dull days. My friend had stopped talking so much on the way to work I've noticed, she'll watch me as I scan the crowd of work rushed people and then sigh when I don't see you. She didn't ask about it but she would look too. I think she knew something was up. However, I didn't want to be a stalker, chasing after you just because of these feelings. If I just got my chance to say hi and explore this new thing, I'd be satisfied. After four days though, I had lost hope of seeing you again. My friend frowned with me now, her eyes kept scanning the crowd but mine cast downward. The blurriness was back with the same routine, I had to give up or you'd be an obsession, one I couldn't afford to have. You lived rent-free in my head for nearly a whole week and I needed to kick you out, so I did. Or so I thought.

Over the course of a few days, I found myself walking a different way to work, a constant wonder in the back of my mind of if you had just changed direction and I needed to follow to find you. One moment engraved into my vision, one face I needed to find, a voice I've yet to hear but I know will lure me in. I tried six different streets, all of which made me a few minutes late into work, each day my boss cut into me about being on time. My friend had even voiced her concern. I lacked the emotion to care however, that's one thing about the blurriness, I never really cared. The only care I've allowed recently is finding which way to point my sail to get to where you were if the wind allowed me to follow your trail. At some point during my search, I realized I needed to stop for my own sake or I'd drown in an ocean of aimless desire..

"Hey." One day, a few after I forced myself to stop my search, I was on my way to work, walking alone with my eyes on my phone and a dull sugar milk coffee in my other hand. The one word made me halt, stunned as my eyes looked up and everything was suddenly clear again. You were in front of me..looking sheepish with a smile that warmed every frozen part of me. I was so shocked that you were looking at me, talking to me! I could only stutter a meek "Hi." I was so unsure of how to speak to you, yet didn't want to waste my chance. Over the days I spent trying to find you, I didn't think once of what I'd say. Your smile became warmer, softer. I noticed you relaxed, had you been nervous? I mirrored you, putting my phone away, all attention on you. "I'm uh...I'm sorry to stop you, you looked busy.." You were nervous! "I was wondering if I could ask you out, on a date..?" You asked, looking so confident but still afraid of my rejection, for once in a long time, I smiled.

"Sure."

That was the start of our story together, where each day I found out what I love about you.

(This story is of a nameless husband and wife. It's mainly little one-shots with different topics that don't happen in order. In other words, despite chapter one showing how they met, everything after this will be random. Hope you enjoy the stories!)