Tell Me More - #NaBloPoMo

Tell me something I don’t know about you.

A question I ask Hubs all the time. Usually at intimate moments. A quiet dinner just the two of us. After supper, on the couch, when the kids are in bed. When we’re in bed…my head on his shoulder, my fingers playing with the hair on his chest.

I see his eyes look up and left. Searching for something in his long memory.

We’ve been together seven years…I think I’ve told you all the major things…

I smile. And press.

There were almost fifty years before me. There’s so much I don’t know.

I want to. Even five years in. I still want to know more. What made him into the man I fell in love with.

We share often and freely. Our childhoods. Our parents. Our siblings. Relationships with our grandparents. Stories of our aunts and uncles and cousins. College life. Travel. Our marriages.

His family traveled a lot when he was young so his father could work. They grew up in hotels and rented houses. He tells me of growing up in Paris. Where his sister was born. Of smoking cigarettes with hobos on the banks of the Sienne. Long walks in Scotland with only his dog for company. Being taught to swim in a very cold outdoor pool. A hotel in Rosendal, the Netherlands where they lived for some months while his father worked. Sneaking treats from the kitchen staff.

The memories are usually pleasant. A smile plays under the bristly beard that greys more every day.

There is always another story. Another memory. I want to hear them all. I want to know. Did he have a midlife crisis? What was his first marriage like? What was it like changing schools so often?

The conversations blend. Sometimes one story will blur into one I have heard before—but I’m eager for the retelling. The new perspective years after the event. The fine details that suddenly become clearer as his eyes search for the memory.

In my minds eye I see the tall, stocky, schoolboy eating a Scotch pie covered in gravy…wearing a uniform with patches at the knees. Either a little too long or a little too short—never in between.

I see the cocky rugby player who could pass for drinking age at only fourteen.

I see the scholar. At college—so smart there was little need for study—but plenty of opportunity for nights out.

The broad shoulders. The wry smile. The twinkle in his eye.

The man I know so well. But I continue to want to know more. To drink in all that he is.

Tell me more. I want to know everything. 

This post originally appeared on Live by Surprise on November 15, 2015. It has been updated.

Image credit:  stockimages / freedigitalphotos.net

20 Comments

  1. That seems so foreign to me. I’m the exact opposite. I’ve known my husband since I was 14 years old. I don’t think there is anything we don’t know about each other. Happy New Year Liv!

  2. Me too. There’s never too much to tell me.
    I remember when I would first start dating someone and I was so wordy and talky and I just sometimes needed that back, at least halfway. And sometimes I got more than I bargained for! Sometimes not.

  3. That was beautiful Liv! I’m going on 25 years next year we’ve been together over half our lives and known each other since we were 13 and 15. If there is a story I haven’t heard he’s forgotten about it! But I’m still crazy about him after all this time. I hope you have the same.

  4. Your words are saturated with love. Quite the passionate glimpse into your mind and heart.

  5. I love this. Alex does a similar thing every so often– he’ll just say “tell me a story.”

  6. Oh what a beautiful portrait of love and always diving deeper into each other. I just picture every detail of you two together and your gentle nudges to explore more, grow more, connect more- the desire is just so passionate. Love does that. You’ve inspired me to reach further into my own man- dig through more. There’s always more!

  7. My husband isn’t a talker at all and it’s so hard to get something out of him so lucky you ๐Ÿ™‚

  8. Wow, I love this. I love how small and intimate of a post it feels. I hope we haven’t intruded on the scene in your bedroom, but you two are adorable and I’m SO glad you have each other, and that you feel this way – this close and in love – even though you don’t know everything about each other yet.

    <3 <3 <3

    1. Author

      I hope there’s always something more. I want it to always feel this fresh and new – yet familiar.

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