Marriage Diaries #3: Shower Thoughts

My internal body clock has my eyes wide open by 7am, despite how lethargic I felt the night before or how hard I crashed the moment my head hits the pillow.

At 7am today, he was still fast asleep. I made minimal, barely noticeable movements to extricate myself from the arms that encircled me. Almost always, and always subconsciously, he would realise than I’m getting up and he would pull me back, hold me tighter and lock me in place.

I would always have to call his name in a whisper until his eyes, half-lidded and bleary, acknowledges the silent plea in mine to loosen the iron hold he has on me.

I showered the moment I managed to get out of bed, and as usual, got lost in thought while I lathered and rinsed under the therapeutic, lukewarm water.

When I was done, hair dripping wet and towel completely soaked, I jumped into bed and as usual, started talking to him despite knowing that it was too early for his internal body block.

“Baby, I had a shower thought.”

“Mmm?” He grunted, smiled and extended his arms, beckoning me to lie with him. He cringed slightly when my wet hair touched his skin.

“I’m still a bit wet sorry.”

“You don’t say?”

“Can I share my shower thoughts with you please please please?”

“I’d love to hear it”. He hugged me with both arms and I found myself talking to his chest.

“You’re aging faster than I am.”

He pulled back slightly, looked at me with lucid eyes and furrowed brows, and said, “What?”

“You’re aging faster. Because you’re taller, and that makes you bigger. At least, vertically bigger. And that means you have a bigger surface area. And you know how our cells regenerate, before the ability to regenerate slowly degrades, and that is how we scientifically age? Because you have a wider surface area, you regenerate at a higher magnitude, which also accelerates the degradation of your ability to regenerate. So technically, you age faster.”

“…Okay.”

“But then it’s okay because your skin is like, black, which means you have more melanin, which is the body’s natural mechanism against external aging factors, like the sun. So, it balances things out.”

“…Sure.”

“So in essence, you and I will age at approximately the same rate! Isn’t that great?!”

“Wait. Did you call me black?”