Rain.

Long ago, he wore the wrong shoes to make the right impression with the wrong person. The rightly wrong impression. Ah, when will you learn? The perfect impression. Perfection doesn't exist.
But this new beautiful one could see through that perfect mask that you put on. She was able to see right through it, and she liked what she saw. Through the wrong shoes and the collared dark shirt, the useless vest in a cold night.
She wore no mask. And you could see what she was like. And you liked what you saw. And so it began.
Paper stars. Creativity taken at a new level of paper folds. Tiny fine paper ornaments, as fine as her small hands. You loved the time. And she seemed to enjoy it too. Except you lost your chances to do things. Damn engineering. It's taken time. Your precious called you boring.
"Belittle", "diminish", and "patronize" are very difficult words. I can't think of who came up with them. But I learned them. Because I always wanted to know what you wanted to say. My written form is much better than how I speak.
Long ago, I could do nothing but smile and nod. After a while, I could write. Then I could speak. Scary, man. It's been 8 years. And she celebrated those 8 years.
To be continued