“I love your smile,” he abruptly states, like the words were pulled from him. I love so many parts of him. His lopsided smile, his sort-of-big ears, his unruly hair, the ego that asserts itself now and then. I love the way he tries. How he tried to understand and see me from the moment we met, even when he was still trying to buy his own assumptions, how he’s been trying to get better, how he always tries for honesty and to do what he says he will. How he owns it when he hasn’t or can’t.
