It appeared to outsiders that they were
at odds. He would test her patience and try to charm his way out of
it. She would try impose her will through loosely crafted arguments
based on creative feminine logic. He would put on magnificent
displays of rhetoric and manipulation, because he liked it when she
caught him trying to get away with something. She liked it too.
Over time though, it became obvious
that this was not a fight, or a contest. It was a game. Two sides,
back and forth. Advance and defend. A game that was almost as much
fun to watch, as it was to play.
In this game, however, keeping score
was never necessary. It was like children playing tic-tac-toe. The
minute one round was over, they'd scrawl out another cross-hatched
board, barely paying attention who had been victorious only seconds
earlier. Even if they had kept score, it would have still been tied
after a hundred years of play. Sometimes he'd win, sometimes she
would. And sometimes, when it was needed, they'd remind the
spectators that they were actually on the same team all along and
would do anything for each other.
Before each other, they hadn't
discovered anybody who could play the game at their level, nor
anybody who wished to. But they found each other... and in each other
a worthy adversary, a constant companion, and a best friend.
And they played the game for years and
years, until one of them died. The person left standing being
defeated by the heart's greatest loss... and yet, still victorious
because everyday they had spent together, the game brought into
their hearts the greatest joy and love. Again, it was a tie.
