We used to have a dictionary on our bedside table and a crossword on the edge of the tub. Over the years our shitty apartments became less shitty - our tubs growing with each apartment upgrade - but these items, the dictionary and the crosswords, remained.
Each night we would reach for the dictionary, taking turns thumbing through the pages and carefully selecting words for the other. Snuggled in, half-dressed, we would share the words that caught our eyes and their respective definitions. It was just a thing we would do; a way we learned each other.
On particularly hard days, you’d climb into the tub with me, holding the daily crossword from the paper in one hand and a chewed pencil in the other. There we would sit, until the water cooled, trying to finish the daily puzzle. Not a lot would be said during those tubs as we were both so focused on solving 24-down. It was just a thing we would do; a way we learned to work together.
Our current tub is glorious in comparison and our king bed is dressed in all white and flanked with a table on each side. We’ve definitely moved up from that shitty basement apartment on 5th and Arbutus. These items, the dictionary and the crosswords, they aren’t there anymore. The dictionary replaced by Google and the daily newspaper no longer delivered to our doorstep. We are better connected than ever, aren’t we, love?
So, love, if you find yourself needing to learn me again. Grab the dictionary from the guest room shelf and climb into my half of the king. Place the dictionary in my hands and ask me to choose three words and read them out loud with their respective definitions. Learn which words grab my eye and listen why. Snuggle me, fuck Google.
And love, if you see me storm through the front door, carrying the weigh of the world upon my shoulders, you should head to the corner store, grab the last copy of the London Free Press and rush home. Slide in behind me in that gloriously warm tub and remind me that we are the best team that ever existed, the weight of the world is never on my shoulders alone. Sit with me, fuck the world.