They asked him if we’d care to join them on their evening out in town. I overheard him say, “No, I’ve got something special planned for her.”

It caught my attention because my husband rarely plans romantic evenings out for the two of us. He’s not much of a planner – always going on a whim. And being on an island with a baby where we don’t have anyone to babysit for us, we’re always a party of 3 instead of 2. We love it that way, but when we visited my parents for the holidays, we did take advantage of their offers to take care of the little one.

So to hear that my husband planned a romantic night out for just the two of us intrigued me, to say the least.

We drove away, and images of fancy dinner settings and a starlit beach immediately flooded my mind. What will we do? Where will we go? Somewhere new, somewhere familiar?

Somewhere I did not expect: the local Asian market.

Confusion and the smell of fish sauce hit me as we walked into the store, perusing our way through persimmons and jackfruit, champagne mangoes and lychee jellies. We made our way to the fresh seafood – rows and rows of fresh fish lay on ice, staring up at us with cold, dead stares.

Romantic, huh?

My husband could see the consternation on my face. He turned to me, wrapped his arms around me and said, “How about a nice seafood dinner?”

He began to pick things for our dinner, and somewhere between the oysters and the crawfish, I raised an eyebrow and said slowly, “So… this is it? This is our romantic night out? We finally have a night out without the baby, and we’re just gonna go back home… and cook?”

He scoffed at my skepticism. He stood up straight, and looking into my eyes he said, “Yes. This is our romantic night out. If we’re gonna be spending a lifetime together, these are the things that have to be romantic. Us in the kitchen, cooking together like we do all the time – that’s romantic to me.”

I smiled, feeling tiny tears form behind my eyes, and I just kissed him. I kissed him because I didn’t know what else to say. I’d been so caught up in the excitement of finally being out, just the two of us, anticipating a date night like we hadn’t had in a long time… when all along, my husband has considered every night with me a date night. Even when we do nothing but sit on the couch and watch TV; even when my hair is a mess and I have no makeup on; even when he’s home late from work and we only have an hour or two together until the baby is up – every night is a date night. Every moment is romantic. And I’m thankful to have a partner who feels that way because that is what’s going to keep our romance going for years to come.

Romance isn’t found in a fancy restaurant or somewhere secluded under the stars. It’s in us. The romance is in us.

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