How did we go on dates?

Everything you do is something I want to capture and keep forever because photographs never disappear but people do and it would be a shame if you did really. There are things about you that I like and things about you I adore but there are things about you I detest too and one of those few very few things is when you say:

‘Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you.’

It’s endearing and your deer eyes glint and they enjoy it but that’s the problem because they enjoy it and it burns me because I can see right through you and you are unhappy. Thank you snap. Your eyes are round and curved and swollen and caked with makeup and you look up and stare and blink and your lips in their glorious way plump and press and you really look marvelous and thank you snap you glow but only I see it.

It was the 189th day and your hair was different. It was a darker shade of blonde and a little bit of copper and perhaps all kinds of metal if I stared any longer and your bangs were raised exposing your concealer-caked forehead but it’s a nice shape.

‘Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you.’

It’s one of the few very few things I can’t stand about you but I love you the most I really do. Thank you snap.

You’re sweating and there’s a towel around your neck and there’s a neat bouquet of pink and yellow and green chrysanthemums on your table and a staff hovers over you and takes it and your eyes widen like a deer’s and you look surprised because you see yourself in my sunglasses.

‘Hello,’ you say and your skin is prickly from up close and you dab at it and I wonder if you are self-conscious.

‘Do you like it?’

‘Excuse me?’

‘The song. Do you like it?’

Your doe eyes still and your smile falters and your lips grow stiff and for an instant you are unsettled seeing your dark reflection. You squirm mentally and I know every single cell in your body tingles and flares and breaks just like mine and I smile and you smile back and your lips press together just the way I like them to.

‘I do,’ you answ