I looked her directly in the eyes still unsure of what I had heard, yet somehow knowing it instinctively that what I heard were the life-changing words that I had so longed to hear. She had said those words. They came slowly from her lips and poured into my ears … I was elated and I was scared at the same time.

Three. Small. Words.

I had felt that she had felt that way for some time, but you really never know until, well, you know. But I felt it. I felt it in the way she lingered in our kisses. In the way she clung that extra few seconds to my embrace. In the way we shared our magic together at night. I dreamed … I hoped … I prayed secretly that she felt that way about me. The way that I always dreamt those lucky few who were “soul mates” felt about one another.

Three. Small. Words.

My heart fluttered and I saw stars. She looked back at me and I could see that same longing and fear and hope in her eyes. Two perfect eyes looking back at me … and me looking into her and our future.

Time froze and in her eyes I saw the next 50 years of our lives … I saw us building a life and a home. I saw us making love in the rain. I saw us laughing. I saw us crying. I saw us caring for our children and buying presents for our parents. I saw us going to school plays and I saw “us.” God above, I saw an “us.” I saw us happy and I saw us sad. In her eyes, I swear I saw “us.”

I saw all of that because of three small words.

Her lips began to tremble and I saw tears beginning to well in those eyes that I was so lost in. The realization of it all snapped me out of my drunken state. “Well,” she said to me … imploring me to answer with impatience that was palpable.

I looked at her, square in those beautiful brown eyes and said: “Baby, I love you too.”