Tu Me Manques

**********

"You know, I heard French is a really romantic language."

"It is. I learnt it awhile back, in fact; when I was gone"

"Then ...  What was your favourite phrase or saying?"

She paused to think, before continuing.

"You know how we say 'I miss you'? In French it's 'Tu Me Manques', which means more literally 'you are missing from me'. I like that you know... that someone can be so essential to your being. It's like when that person's gone, you don't just feel longing or disappointment; You feel empty, incomplete, because that person had taken a part of you with them."

Now it was his turn to pause, for her words had seemingly reached down deep into his heart to stir up something he had thought he had forgotten.

"Then ... how would you respond, if someone told you those words?"

She gazed at him meaningfully, lovingly, as a small tender smile tugged at the corners of her lips, before she replied.

"I have returned, my love."

And then his warm hand reached over to engulf hers, there under the moonlit sky. Their fingers intertwining - just like two perfectly fitted puzzle pieces.