The Perfect Family

Chapter 13: Jack

As I lie in bed next to Emilie, I can't help but think that she bears an uncanny resemblance to an angel sent from above. She looks as radiant as that fateful night a year after my surgery.

~X~

It was a rainy day in March, and we had both come home from  a long days work. I sold my very first book, which was a novel called, Sincerely Nolan. This novel was about a six year old boy who died during a car accident on the way home from school, whose un-aging spirit returns when his family feels as if they need him the most. Since he knows he cannot actually approach them, he sits in a peach tree and writes them heart-felt letters as reassurance and puts them in the mailbox of their dreams.

Emilie is scatter brained at school trying to come up with the lesson plans for the next week in her workplace math course. We weren't yet married but we had been together for a long time, so we only thought it would be appropriate if we lived together. We had been living together for 6 months.

"Hey" I said as I she grabbed the door for me and I hand her a bouquet of lilies.

"Oh, Jack. I've missed you so much, baby!" Emilie said as she took the lilies and gave me the tightest hug.

"I've missed you too, sweetie" I responded as she closed the door and reaches in one of the cabinets for a vase.

"How are you and those legs of yours?" Emilie asked, she had grown accustomed to doing so after my surgery because she knew how long I had gone without relying on them.

"Still can't get over it. But I feel better and better everyday" I answered with a smile of pure love and astonishment.

"Did I ever get the chance to tell you how happy I am for you?" Emilie smiled.

"Yes, every single day since you visited me in the hospital a few days after the opperation.

"Well, I just think its a true miracle" Emilie sighed as she place her hands on my shoulder and exhaled deeply. As she did so, her breath was slow and calming. It smelled of pomegranate tea.

"It sure is" I responded as I breathed in the scent of her breath, cherishing every second. 

The next thing I knew, we had left the living room and were upstairs in the bedroom beneath the dark. The sounds of the outside world were completely blocked out by the sound of our heart beats coming together as one. Our bodies discovered a connection that took us further than we ever thought was possible. All my anxieties had vanished in the presence of the wonderful woman I was proud to call my common law partner. Of course, we both knew what was happening, but something in me just had to ask for the sake of confirming reality. 

"You and I just... I'm just.. wow" I sighed.

"It sure was interesting, magical even" Emilie responded as we looked at each other in complete awe.

"I truly love you and will want for nothing as long as I have you" I said as I stroked her cheek and placed a stray brown hair into back in its place behind her ear.

"So do I" Emilie smiled.

"What? What are you thinking right now?" I said as I looked at her adoringly and stroked her bare arm.

"How lucky I am to have found you" Emilie sighed.

"I'm the lucky one" I smiled as I leaned in to kiss her. A kiss tender but quick that made it feel as of it was just the two of us in the entire world, even though we had spent an entire hour doing just that.

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The next morning, Emilie awakens with the biggest smile on her first. "Good morning" she sighs.