No Words Needed

Lyla had always dreamt of falling in love, of finding her prince charming and living happily ever after. She’d quickly found as she grew up that life was filled with losers in aluminum foil and had learned that she didn’t need a prince, she could ride into the sunset on her own damn horse.

That was until she met Charlie and realized that she may not need a guy to make her feel complete, but it didn’t hurt to have someone to hold your hand as you navigated through the world... especially when that someone was him. His laughter was contagious and his heart was beautiful, but none of that compared to the way he made Lyla feel.

There were no fireworks or skipping of the heart when she saw him, just a total sense of peace and love. He had the ability to calm her to the core and make her feel that she was worth something, even when she was at her lowest.

Waking up to the sound of her alarm, Lyla reached out blindly and sighed when she found the other side of the bed empty. Getting up, she grabbed a quick shower and headed down to the kitchen to make herself some coffee. Putting the kettle on to boil, she glanced over to the whiteboard and smiled.

‘Your smile is like the sunrise, that sets clouds aflame and brightens my world. Have a great day beautiful and don’t forget to smile!!’

Every morning before he left for work, Charlie would take time to leave her a message and it never ceased to make her smile. Taking a selfie on Snapchat of her smiling, she added a caption which read ‘You’re the reason that I smile’ and sent it to Charlie without hesitation.

Arriving at work an hour later, Lyla took her seat behind the reception desk and braced herself for the day ahead. After dealing with her fifth complaint of the shift, she had reached the edge and made the decision to take her break a little earlier than usual.

Pouring herself a glass of juice, she heard her phone ring and retrieved it to find Charlie’s name flashing up on the screen.

“Hey,” she said as she answered it.

‘Hey pumpkin, how’s work going?’

“I’m starting to think that there’s something in the hotel's water supply,” Lyla replied, “I’ve had five complaints already...”

‘Wow, one of those days, huh?’

“Definitely one of those days, how’s your day been?”

‘Pretty busy, but no complaints and we picked up a new client.’

“Congratulations,” Lyla stated, “I better get back... wish me luck.”

‘Good luck.’

Hanging up, Lyla took a deep breath and got back to work. Her shift seemed to go on forever, but finally, the clock struck 7 pm and she made her way home. The temperature had dropped outside and a thin layer of snow had covered the ground, but Lyla didn’t have the energy to be annoyed by it. Pulling her keys from her bag, she let herself in and frowned when she was met with silence.

“Babe,” she called out, turning on the kitchen light and noticing the message that was now on the whiteboard.

‘Baby it’s cold outside... just picking some things up from the shops and I’ve ordered us Chinese. Just relax, choose something for us to watch on Netflix and I’ll be home soon.’

Unable to hold back the grin that spread across her face, Lyla got changed into her pajamas and settled on the sofa in the living room. Browsing through the films on Netflix, she chose The Hangover and went to get them some plates for their food.

It was easy to say ‘I love you’, but Charlie had the ability to say it without words and that made the meaning so much more powerful to her. Those three little words were thrown around with no true emotion behind them, but Lyla believed that actions spoke louder than words and Charlie made her feel loved every single day with the small things he did.