Next to You

by Hannah Bonam-Young

“I love you. I love your generous heart and your kindness. I love your insane number of books and your strange hobbies. I love that you sing in the shower and use your toothbrush as a microphone. I love that you can’t just sip drinks but chug them. I love your hair, your beard, and your whole face, really. The rest of your body too. All of it.” I take a breath, realising I’m about to spiral. “And I’m ready now. I’m ready for this. Us. All of it. The morning breath and the bedtime stories and all the parts between. I want your clothes in laundry baskets with mine and your books to take over my shelves. I never want to be parted from you, ever again. I don’t even want to think about that, actually. Because being far from you… it was like its own sort of grief. I missed you. Like Rochester missed Jane. Like my ribs were torn out. I felt it too.”