Black Licorice on Date Night

I am staring at a box of black licorice candy and I can feel the smile slowly starting to spread. It starts at the corners of my mouth and soon you can see my teeth because it has become so wide. By the time it is in full swing, my cheeks are aching and I can feel the bubble, the promise of a laugh building in my gut. Normally, while I love licorice candy, I do not have this kind of reaction to it. But this specific box of ‘Crows’ (as they are so fabulously named) recalls date night with my husband this past Saturday. We have been together for many years but just recently wed. As a bit of a refresher to our relationship, we decided that it would be nice to start date nights every month or so…..a little respite from the kids and hopefully a not so subtle reminder of why we chose each other to begin with.

This particular night started with a nice, quiet dinner. All of our date nights start quietly. It is as if we must acclimate to each other’s presence for a period of time before we can shed our other roles and become wife and husband, lover and friend, boy and girl again. Inevitably, we look around at other people, stare too long at the menu, make small talk about something we have already discussed before. And then, as sure as I know that I love this man, a shift happens. For me, it may be the way he holds his mouth or the still foreign glint of a ring on his finger and I am no longer sitting across from a person that I see every single day and make dinner for every night. Instead, I see him. I see the man I would choose over sleep when we were dating, staying up way too late just to be near one another. I see the man, the only person, who can make me laugh when I am at my worst.  I see the person I am walking through this life with and I cannot possibly be happier.

So, there are two points to my little tale. The first is that date night works. The second is black licorice rocks. Take away what you will.