"You look happy."
"I am", I said.
"I know you. Who is she?"
"Her name is Julia."
"What about her?"
"Everything."
"Everything?"
"The world doesn't move without her anymore."
"What do you mean?"
"I always thought myself a contented and happy man. I was contented, and happy too, when happiness would visit me, but happiness has taken on a different meaning now. I still think myself a free man whose actions and thoughts dictate how he feels, but every utterance and every action now knows her name and without it the world does not feel the same."
"You okay, my man?"
"Why?"
"You sound like you're on another planet."
"Rude."
"By that I mean something's got you good."
"Her name is Julia."
"You said. Tell me about her"
"If the stars could sing; they would sing her name."
"Wow. Are you high?"
"Rude, again."
"I'm just yanking your chain, man. Tell me more."
"She affects me daily. I feel lighter, stronger, happier, and more confident, when she's around. When I hear her speak everything feels right in the world; I lose my fear, I gain confidence. She is in all the tiny things that make up life. No matter where I am or what I'm doing all I can think about is doing it with her. Every moment is better with her in it. "
"She must be something else."
"Her name is Julia."
"What else do you like about her?"
"Everything."
"That's not helpful, man."
"Even if I were to spill a million words in her name about how she makes me feel it still wouldn't be enough. She has my heart. It burns bright for her. My art lives and dies with her. I feel thankful for her every day."
"Hold onto that one."
"I can't. She must choose me freely. I choose her. Daily. Indefinitely. That's what love is to me, a daily choice."
"Are you in love with her?"
"Sometimes you meet a person and they change your whole world. I can't breathe right when I don't feel close to her. I breathe for two now. My heart isn't wholly mine anymore. It is hers now too. It is at once terrifying and exhilarating. Being away from her hurts something fierce."
"What do you feel when you're away from her?"
"I despair at the thought of losing her. Love and loss go hand in hand. I went some time without her due to a communication error and it felt like death. That was early on, not long after we met, I can only imagine how much worse it would be today. I need her. I need her love, her presence, her everything."
"So love has a name now?"
"Her name is Julia."
"Must be hard not to be with her."
"You have no idea. My body aches for her. I can't stand being away from her. Not feeling her presence is a kind of death, like watching the whole of autumn shed its leaves within the span of a few minutes, it's beautiful and heart-wrenching all at once. It's hard to focus when she's not around. I can only imagine what her physical presence and absence would do to me. I want to feel it all. I want to miss her. I want her absence to hurt. It's how I know she's the real deal."
"How does the future look?"
"Forever with her sounds like a dream. She has become wholly essential to living; the subject of my passions, the reason I jump for joy in the morning, the roar in my voice when I speak about what I want to achieve, a daily reason to be thankful and present for. Her trust in me, and our chemistry, I consider those life's greatest gifts at the moment. I feel so god damn alive thanks to her. She's worth fighting for, worth dying for. I want to keep her close to me at all times. I need her hands on my body, her lips kissing mine. I need her presence to fill my heart with love. Light hits me different when she's around. The whole world feels different with her in it. "
"What's different about it?"
"Remember as a kid when the world felt full of wonder and excitement every fucking day?"
"Yeah, life as an adult feels dreadfully uneventful by comparison."
"Life's full of wonder and excitement again, as long as she's in it."
"Wow! I envy you."
"I love her so fucking much."
"Finally found your little Koala, didn't you?"
"Her name is Julia."