This is How You Lose the Time War (get you someone who loves you like this)

I have not read this book (yet), but Thom messaged me last night:

Have you read _This Is How You Lose The Time War_?

I am enjoying this a lot, and not just because it frequently makes me think of you.

Mostly not in the specifics — just in the depth of the sentiment.

They sent me some excerpts, most of which had sort of in-jokey connections to us, and said:

We’ve been married for ~2 weeks, dating for ~7 months, not-dating for ~19 months, and friends for, what, ~2.5 years? And we have so many in-jokes that I can find you almost anywhere. ❤️

Reader, I melted.

[Also, pedantically, it's been ~19 months since we started not-dating, but because we got to level up to actual-dating after 12 months, it's a little misleading to say "we've been not-dating for ~19 months."]

***

Lunchtime today:

Thom:

God, this book is so romantic.

And I’m going to stop sending you snippets, because I don’t want to spoil this any more than I might already have. (I don’t think I have, but I want to be extra careful from here to the end.)

I’m likely to keep highlighting to share with you once you’ve read it.

I’m low key tempted to ask you to read it on a day when we’re together, so I can talk about every chapter with you as you read.

JFC, I’ve come close to crying at the end of, like, over half the last few chapters.  

Highs and lows and such deep sentiment. 

me:

I mean, you're also under a lot of stress and your body might want an excuse to cry...

(Which I do not say to minimize the intensity of the emotion of the book -- #BothAnd.)

Thom:

Oh, yeah. Definitely also a thought I had. It is impossible to separate our experience of art from our experience of reality. 

My love for this book is a product of my stress, of my love for you and for Colleen, of my umbilical hernia, and of three episodes of _Ted Lasso_. (Thanks, mediocre and sentimental cishet white guy.) 

But also, the book is objectively excellent.  

As is likely any book that includes in the acknowledgments, “Warm thanks, too, to Felicity Maxwell, for her generous expertise on Bess of Hardwick.”