I smiled. “I never thought I’d love anything more than I loved traveling,” I nodded, understanding where she was coming from. “Then I met you.”
She smiled. “After that trip, we got back home and settled into domestic life.”
“You say that like it’s boring.”
“It wasn’t for me.”
“It wasn’t for me, either,” I assured her. “I had as much fun living a mundane life of repetition with you as I did hopping from one country to the next.”
“Really?” she asked, with one raised eyebrow.
“Really,” I nodded firmly.
“Even that first year when I went through three different jobs and kept having neurotic breakdowns because I thought I’d never find anything I enjoyed doing?”
“Even then,” I nodded.
“Even the second year when I went back to school for my masters?” she asked.
“Even then.”
“Even the third year when I started working at the university?”
“Are you kidding?” I said. “I was looking forward to working in the same place as you. It certainly made the commute a lot more interesting for me.”
“You’re sweet.”
“No, I’m honest.”
Natalie leaned forward and kissed my hand. “That was the year you proposed to me,” she reminded me, in a soft voice.
“I remember,” I said.
“Do you see?” she pointed out. “That’s why life went by so fast. We moved in together; we started traveling. When we got back, you started work, and I started hunting for jobs. Then I went back to school and immediately after, I started working at the university, too. You proposed to me that year and three months later we were married.”
“Do you regret not having a longer engagement?” I asked. “Or a bigger wedding?”
“Not for a second,” she assured me. “I always wanted a small wedding, and once you proposed to me, all I wanted was to be your wife. I remember feeling those three months like they were years.”
“I felt the same way,” I nodded. “If it weren’t for the fact that our families would have been devastated, I would have just suggested we elope.”
Natalie laughed. “My parents would never have forgiven us. And neither would Sophie and the kids.”
“True,” I nodded. “Still, it was a good wedding.”
“It was perfect,” she smiled, and I could tell from her eyes that she was seeing that day unfold. “I looked through our wedding album just before we left for the airport.”
“I should look through it when we get back,” I said. “To be honest, that day is a blur to me now. There’s only one thing I remember with perfect clarity.”
“The food?” Natalie teased.
“You.” I smiled.
“Me?” she said, pretending to blush. “Was I really that beautiful?”
“More than beautiful,” I said. “I can still see you, walking down that wooden aisle towards me on the beach. That dress made you look like some ethereal creature from my dreams, and I realized just how lucky I was at that moment.”
She leaned forward and kissed me gently on the lips. “I’ve never really thanked you,” she said.