Since we’d been living together, I realized that he loved affection and comfort. Though we couldn’t do it in public, he loved our long hugs in the house, and how I held his hand when we were just simply walking together around the house. He also loved when I grabbed his hand in the car. Because of the way he was, I knew that he’d never admit it. It all came together when he told me the way he grew up. His mother didn’t nurture him the way that she should have.

