...Of Anticipation

Two wet drops rolled on to his neck and mingled with his sweat. She clung closer, as if she wanted to say something and yet she seemed to have lost speech. His smell was familiar...so very familiar...the same man smell that filled her every time she breathed. She clung even closer, trying to settle down in the security of his warm being. This is where she wanted to be...

She didn't need a man. She never had. But somewhere it was because no man had ever needed her. And she couldn't care enough. She had liked men who had told her that they didn't like her. She had learnt the hard way that it was not meant for her and that it was how it was supposed to be for the rest of her life...

But there she was beside him...clinging to him like a child...resting on his promises to keep her safe from the cruel cruel world. It was something that she had never felt before...affection. He had given her the only thing she ever wanted...a sense of belonging. He could be with any woman he liked but she only had him and him alone...to love, trust to and belong to. With him, she didn't need to pretend to be strong always. She looked at his face, lost in slumber...his tender lips almost sealed in a smile...at that moment realised that this was the man she wanted to grow old with because she would still be his, even when he didn't have a single tooth left or even when he walked with a hunch. She would hold his hand and be by his side...and bear all pain for him for he was her own...her very own. She kissed his hand softly and whispered..."if only you give me a chance...if only..."