Tell Me Again, That I’m Yours—Part III:
The Becoming
It wasn’t just love anymore. It was language. A silent one we spoke with glances, with touch, with the way he always reached for my hand in the dark like he couldn’t sleep without knowing I was still there.
—
We didn’t need constant words—we had presence. Like when I was lost in thought, staring out the window with coffee, and he came up behind me just to rest his chin on my shoulder and let the silence wrap us both in something warmer than speech.
He started saying “we” without realizing it. “We should try that restaurant.”
“We could put a hammock out back.”
“We should take your son to the beach this summer.”
That “we” started to feel like home.
⸻
One night, after a long shift and a harder day, I came home to soft music playing. The lights were low. My favorite hoodie of his was folded on the bed, and a single note sat on top:
“You don’t have to be strong tonight. Just come be mine.”
When I walked into the living room, he was there—arms open, like refuge.
I sank into him like a prayer I hadn’t realized I’d been whispering for years.
He didn’t try to fix me. He just held me. Let me unravel. And when I finally looked up, mascara streaked and red-eyed, he kissed my forehead like it was the most beautiful part of me.
⸻
Later that night, he didn’t undress me like he wanted my body. He undressed me like he worshipped my soul. Every scar. Every stretch mark. Every story my skin had stored.
He kissed each one like it was sacred.
And when we moved together—slow, deep, real—it wasn’t about sex. It was about becoming. About safety. About knowing that love could be fire and softness.
He whispered “I’m not going anywhere” into my skin like a vow.
⸻
We started dreaming out loud after that. Not just about forever… but about how we’d build it.
Where we’d live. What the porch would look like. What pets we’d have. What we’d name the baby, if one ever came.
It wasn’t fantasy. It was blueprint.
And that’s when I realized:
He wasn’t just the man I was falling for.
He was the man I was becoming myself with.
