"I want you to be completely honest."

Nora looked up at him over the stack of papers she held. "I know you do. I heard you the first time."

Darren laughed a little nervously at himself. "Am I driving you mad yet?"

She pretended to consider this, "Well... not yet. But you're definitely hovering." She pointed an imperious finger at their living room and ordered mock-seriously, "Now go relax and let me read!"

He kissed her quickly and obeyed her, sitting down with a book. He tossed it down minutes later, unable to focus. Instead he let his thoughts drift over the past year's events.

To say their wedding had been small would be an understatement. A better adjective would be 'tiny' or perhaps 'minuscule'. Roddy and Andrew made up the entire congregation. However, what they lacked in guests they made up for in joy. Nora pronounced it "perfect," and he was hard-pressed to disagree with her.

Things had been almost ridiculously heavenly since then. The school that had employed Nora before had been delighted to take her back once she supplied proof of her citizenship. Her salary might not have made them rich, but it enabled them to move into a bigger flat and allowed him to quit his job to concentrate on writing.

He'd felt a bit off about letting her support him, but Nora hadn't tolerated that for long. She reminded him that he was still working, even if he wasn't bringing home a paycheck just yet. She went on to inform him that even if he just sat around all day, it would be worth it to her not to have to worry about him getting hurt wrestling.

Of course he wasn't just sitting around and in just under ten months he'd completed his first novel. He'd done as Nora suggested and wrote about his life on the carnival circuit. She'd read the first few chapters as he completed them, but he'd finished the last half of the book on his own, becoming rather adept with a typewriter as he went along.

She now held the finished result in her hands and was under orders to be brutally critical with his work. He prayed that she liked it. He'd poured more of himself into the book than he'd ever imagined possible. She just had to like it.

Hours later, Nora emerged from the bedroom empty-handed. He jumped up to meet her, taking in the tears in her eyes as she walked over and hugged him hard.

"You wrote about me." she sniffled, wiping her eyes.

"Of course." He kissed her hair, "Without you, I wouldn't have anything worth writing about."

She cried more at that, squeezing him tight. "I think it's going to be a best-seller," she pronounced at last.

"Nora..."

She stepped back and looked him straight in the eye. "You told me to be honest and I am. It's wonderful, Darren. It's truly wonderful."

She meant it, he realized, and he had absolute faith in his wife's opinions. "I'll send it off tomorrow then."

She nodded silently, then pulled his mouth down to hers. "I love you so much," she whispered as the kiss ended.

"I love you too. I can't tell you how much I love you." No matter how hard he tried, words always fell short. Nora was his whole world.

Shaking her head, Nora disagreed. "Yes, you can," she whispered, gesturing back towards the bedroom and the book, "It's all in there."

After that, there was nothing more to be said.