Their vacation had drawn to a close, and the three weeks they had spent on a boat with friends were indicative of their relationship. There was fighting, tears, silence, and passion. It was the perfect combination of intoxicating bliss and suffocating disdain. Even the ride home felt like another test. He wondered whether they could make it without another argument. Their relationship seemed to live between tenderness and conflict. Somehow, both extremes had become familiar to them.

Over the course of the trip, their trivial tit-for-tat arguments seemed to morph into their own secret way of communicating. Or maybe they had partied too hard to fight. They had not been on the road four hours when the most unlikely thing happened. He turned and looked at his girlfriend, who had fallen asleep in the passenger’s side, and stumbled into something beautiful. The silence suddenly felt different. It was no longer a pause before another disagreement.

He had spent the whole trip in a tired, tumultuous state, but as he gazed upon her sleeping peacefully, he let everything go. Her brown hair was lit perfectly by the setting sun, as if the sun’s only purpose was to amplify her beauty. Her face was shrouded in innocence and calmness. The warmth radiating from her enveloped him and rescued him from the strife he was feeling. For once, nothing needed to be fixed. He simply watched her and felt the weight inside him disappear.

He wasn’t sad, but his eyes started to well up, as if the emotion was too much to bear. With her serene face and Cat Stevens’ “Moonshadow” playing in the background, he never wanted the moment to end. He had found his version of nirvana, a concept he never truly believed in until he found this tangible form of love. He had found the possibility of forever in that moment. It was not a promise spoken aloud, but it felt real to him. For the first time, forever seemed less like an idea