“i don’t get tired of you the way i get tired of other people.”
He didn’t pretend to hide the touched surprise on his face. Casper’s eyes didn’t settle, flashing from her face at first to anywhere else. Awkwardness overcame him. She must need a special breed of glasses that allowed her to see shitbags when they stood by her side. Immediately, he pitied her. But a blush found its way to warm the winter from his cheeks. How glad Casper was that she liked him. She put up with him when his mood was obnoxiously high, and looked after him when it stooped low. Veronica seemed crazy enough to like spending time with him, and was flat out insane enough to love him.
And he was difficult. Not in the romantic, hard to love ideology either. Casper’s texts were short and sporadic, and he would leave her on ‘Seen’ a lot. He wasn’t very good at seeing what inconvenienced her, rather what put him out of his way. Casper always wanted to be touching, but didn’t usually touch first. He smoked too much, and it interfered with meals out or public things she had to go to. He skulked, and he complained about everything under the sun (solar object included). He wasn’t good with compliments, and he knew he didn’t tell her how much he loved her as often as he should. But what if Veronica thought kinder of him yesterday than she did today? What if it would make her uncomfortable? Or make her feel pressured to stay with him, like he couldn’t breathe without her? Sometimes it scared him how much it felt like that, but that really would sound pathetic.
“Veronica,” Casper said, giving her sleeve a tug, “stop striding.”
Not that he couldn’t keep up, given the dramatic height difference, but where one strode confidently with her head held high, the other provided a completely contrasting shadow. And in any case, he needed her still to kiss her. When she did slow, he pulled her in close for an encompassing embrace, but at distance enough to see each other’s faces. Casper held a small smile, which faltered as he got closer to her lips.
“Shit,” he bent at the knees to kiss her, then kissed her again. “I was gonna say somethin’, it was real fuckin’ poetic too.” Three more kisses scattered themselves across her face. “Just shut up, OK? Don’t say that shit to me,” he kissed her again, smiling. “I piss everyone off, mostly deliberately. I’m glad you’re still here, though. With me.” A final kiss to her forehead, and Casper let her go. He held her hand, and walked close beside her though.
“Against your better judgement though, probably.”
