23:00
23:00 It was just like all the other times she'd held me. Her strong, sinewy, reliably warm hands found the spaces between my fingers, and her deft fingers fit into them like jigsaw pieces. Just like all the other times, I thought her beautiful brown eyes had never looked more so, but I grew to love them more each time. Just like all the other times, I heard her heart beat in a beautifully steady, almost enlivening rhythm. The blood that coursed through her heart gave mine the courage to beat. And whenever she smiled at me, her trademark true-eyed smile, she only made it beat faster. Just like all the other times, our breathing entwined, our beings mingling in each others existence, truly, for one precious moment I could not say whose was whose. Just like all the other times she said she loved me, and to hear her say it made me breathe deeper. Just like all the other times I told her I loved her, and I swore it by all I could swear by, and she laughed. Heavens, if sunshine we