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It's the little things that count. Sure there are grand gestures such as when a couple makes it official that they're an item (there were no popping of the questions for Stu and Nina. They weren't supposed to be exclusive to each other but fate had other plans for them. It was accepted without acknowledgement) or when the vows one takes when they wed (Stu and Nina never planned on making a show of their wedding. When they felt like it they would go file the paperwork) but those occasions only happen once.
The way that Nina knows Stu forgets to take care of his long hair, so she combs it for him (never a brush. She's taken into account that brushing out his hair while dry would make it frizz and tug on his scalp more, causing him pain). Every day after she's gotten dressed for the day, she gathers the comb and leave-in conditioner spray, sits on the bed, and tells Stu to sit in front of her. He does so, and as she spritzes his hair with the leave-in conditioner before she begins to comb, she begins to hum. Stu is the musician, but he loves to hear Nina humming. He takes note of the melody and tells himself to work it into a song. Stu tries not to fidget, wanting to be as still as possible for her, but even if he did move around, Nina wouldn't mind. When she finishes, she tells him, "All done." Stu runs a hand through his hair, loving how silky smooth it feels. Nina leans forward and wraps her arms around him, resting her forehead on his back,
"You like it?"
"Always."
After a long day of work, commuting home, and cooking dinner, Nina loved taking a shower. The hot water washing the grime of the day off her, the feel of the suds on her scalp as she massaged the shampoo in, the scent of her coconut body wash perfuming the restroom. It was all relaxing to her. When she was finished, she would turn the water off, towel herself dry, and then work on putting on moisturizer on her face and lotion on her arms and legs. It would be at this point that Stu would come in and start chatting with her. Stu could talk about any and everything, and she was always happy to listen to what was going on in his day. When she finished rubbing the lotion on her legs, Stu would grab her foot cream and sit on the floor with her following suit. She'd rest her foot on his lap while he squeezed some of the cream into the palm of his hand, and then he would rub the cream onto the sole of her foot. Stu would always be so gentle, massaging the cream into the sole and taking great care to get the sides and heel of her foot. There would be no break in their conversation as Stu continued to talk like everything was normal. When he was done with the foot, he would take a slipper, carefully slip it over Nina's foot, and then put more cream on his hand to repeat the process on the other foot. Nina never asked him to do this for her. She remembered one time she was walking around barefoot, and he asked her, "Why're your feet so cracked-looking?" Nina told him that the skin was very dry due to some ailments she had. Stu nodded and moved on to something else. She didn't think anything of it until the next day when he showed the foot cream he bought. She thought it was a sweet gesture, and ever since, he's taken to putting the cream on her feet every time after her shower.
It's the little things that count; those small things that solidified their love for one another.
