"Parce que je t'aime"

That day, you smiled and I felt my gut drop

That day, you laughed and my world exploded in color

That day, I fell for you, body and soul

You showed up to my door with soup in hand when I was sick

I brought you coffee and sat with you while you studied through the night 

We graduated with the fullest smiles on our faces

I learned Hungarian so I could converse with your parents

You learned how to take care of my sister's diabetes

You wanted to see the world so we learned to stop eating out and saved up

Sometimes you got angry with me 

Sometimes I got angry with you

Dishes weren't my thing and waking up early wasn't yours

You broke your leg and our trip got set back a year

I lost my job and our trip was set back another year

Your mother needed surgery, our car was vandalized, 

and our trip seemed more like an innocent fantasy than a possibility

We started to forget about it

We settled down,

Planted a garden of rosemary and thyme,

Went to farmer's markets on the weekends 

We adopted a dog and named him Charlie

You landed a prestigious engineering contract,

I opened a modest publishing house

We moved into our own house

Our dream trip was now only present in the posters of France you tacked to the walls,

the painting of the Alps we bought off a guy on the street

and the nearly empty mason jar we intended to collect travel funds in

One day, we were having a picnic and you smiled

It was so radiant it blotted out the sun

You laughed and suddenly we were nineteen again, young and glowing

The next day, I sold my publishing house and bought tickets to France

I had intended until we got to the Eiffel Tower but I couldn't wait

Right there in the airport, I knelt down

You've been with me through thick and thin,

you trusted me and never betrayed my trust,

you know my order at any of our favorite restaurants

and you're too perfect for me but still you said yes

I stood, we hugged and you whispered in my ear,

"Je t'adore et tu est mon etoile. Je t'aime"