Before our first date, there was electric-tart anticipation,

After that meeting, there is longing, a slow, pulsing ache of wonder.

The two feelings are not dissimilar, two flavors of possibility.

Between them, over coffee, two hours of irrepressible smiles, furtive glances, laughter, revelation, gazing into each other’s eyes, joy, and the undeniable feeling that a door has opened to a new world, and I have walked into it and into you, and I will never leave.