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A warm breeze made the pine trees sway, their silhouettes dark against the sunset. The view was perfect. Except for one thing. Daryl Blubs frowns at the cobweb in the corner of the window. His love had just washed it for him last week. A slow smile spreads across the sheriff’s lips at the thought of him. Edwin Durland showed his love with small, thoughtful acts of service. Blubs had been talking about the breathtaking sunset view from his office. “It’s just a damn shame my window is never clean,” he had grumbled. “I’d get it myself if it weren’t for my back. You know how it is…” With that, the lovers had climbed into bed together and fell asleep in each other’s arms. Blubs had thought of nothing but the way his Edwin felt next to him. But Durland’s mind was racing. The next morning, Durland got to the police station early. When Blubs walked into his office an hour later, he was hit in the eyes with a beam of sun streaming through the newly cleaned window. Blubs chuckled, and the sound of his delight made Durland’s heart skip a beat from the other room.
The sheriff’s eyes trailed over the cobwebs as he snapped back to reality. The sun had dipped below a nearby mountain. The sky was now purple instead of pink. Soon it would be a deep shade of blue, Durland’s favorite color. Blubs couldn’t fight the smile that tugged at the corners of his mouth when his thoughts wandered back to his boyfriend. With a grunt and a small wince, Blubs pushed himself out of his chair. His sunglasses and hat began to slip, so he adjusted them as he meandered to his office door, opened it, and stepped outside. Across the hall was a deputy's office. His deputy. He stepped forward and gently rapped on the door. “Love,” he drawled in that deep voice Durland loved. “Are you ready for our date night?” The door swung open, and Durland beamed down at him. “You know I am!” With a furtive smile and a dramatic twirl of his wrist, Darland pulled a bouquet of orange, yellow, and white flowers from behind his back. A gargantuan smile spread across Blubs’ face and his face flushed with heat. “You sly dog…” Blubs laughed, then grabbed Durland by the collar and pulled him down into a kiss. Durland’s hands found their way to Blubs’ hips and rested there for several seconds. When they finally pulled back, they were both giddy and flushed. They had kissed countless times. Every kind of kiss imaginable. But still, after every kiss, they felt like fireworks were exploding everywhere. Real love, their kind of love, it never faded. Sure, it would change and develop and adapt to accommodate them as the different stages of life flew by, but the one thing that was constant in the chaos of life was their love for one another.
The night was spent savoring every touch of their hands, every stolen glance, every sweet nothing murmured under the night sky. Durland couldn’t help but feel like a young boy again, and neither could Blubs. As they ate Lazy Susan’s burgers on that picnic blanket, cocooned by the mountains and stars that spread around them like a nest, they were reminded of the reason they remained with each other. Despite the occasional fights, the struggles that came with being openly gay, and the difficult challenge of separating their work from their home life, a constant, undying warmth lingered in their chests. This was love. Love was messy, and love was imperfect. But this love was theirs, and that was all that mattered.