So happy together

We sat down to a lovely dinner he'd made and he handed me a jewelry box. In it were the keys to his home. I moved in with him yesterday. We slept together last night, as always, wrapped in each other's arms. This morning was different. We talked about our upcoming marriage and the future we would have together. "You're going to be my wife," he said. "I'm the luckiest man on earth."

He left for work and I begin to unpack the many boxes cluttering the house. My head was spinning as I thought about what I had done. I had left my lovely apartment in Santa Monica and my single life to join his. I began to put my things around the house, my CD's in with his, my dishes and glasses on the shelves, and began hanging pictures on the walls. I often had asked him why his house stayed as it was when he bought it. Why he never made improvements. Why the house was just that, a house, never a home. He always had the same answer. That this house was bought in desperation and was just temporary. That he never really felt like it was home.

His two Dalmations, Rose and Cody, watched as I decorated. I remember a time long ago when he warned me about these vicious dogs. I find this so funny since both dogs have loved me since the first day I walked in his house. Cody jumps on top of me and Rose licks me to death. Cody tries to sleep in bed with me and Rose, who's too old to jump on the bed, lays her head on my hand.

As I took the last things out of the boxes and arranged my furniture in with his, I wondered how he would feel when he walked in the door this evening. Would he feel scared, perhaps crowded?

The car pulled in the driveway and I greeted him at the door. As he walked in, his smile was contageous. He wrapped me in his arms and said, "I'm home. Finally, I'm home."

"I'll light the fire, you place the flowers in the vase that you bought today."