Ever After After the kiss there is a day, and another day
Movies and books lied to me when I was young. Servant girls became princesses to charming princes and prostitutes became wives to billionaire businessmen. They showed love overcoming all obstacles, a declaration and a kiss, then the end of the story in which they lived happily ever after. But that is just a story. After the kiss there is day, and another day, and another, all bleeding together with happiness as a goal that is not always reached, and the best that can be hoped for is to find a way to tread water in between the times of exquisite swimming and drowning in routine. There can be an ever after but the happy is not guaranteed.