“I feel so at ease with her, then why is it always like this”? I woke up in the middle of the night on the sofa, looking at the ceiling. I wanted to ponder, irritated by a stingy headache.

Why is that ease so important? What If we’re looking at it from the wrong side? You read in books and novel about romance and love that the ease is the goal. The comfort that you feel with your partner is the end goal of a loving relationship. I disagree.

When we are together, we should let go of the fantasy that intimacy is easy. We share struggles. We share contradictory ideas. True connection thrives on these ideas, these challenges—they bring us closer. 

We need to stop romanticising ease. We can do the hard things. Because there’s love.

I’ll keep peeling away the layers of her heart, like a pomegranate, each seed revealing a deeper part of her soul. With every layer I uncover, I hope to find myself within her depths, us, intertwined— her true self and mine—sweet and hidden. 

Until my fingers bleed, until my bones break, until I gasp for breath on the verge of giving up, I will peel.