Clark sat there across from her, staring into her eyes for what felt like an eternity. Finally he slowly put his hand gently on her left cheek. His expression got serious as it often did when he was about to tell her something he didn't want her to take lightly. "You are so beautiful. Do you realize wars have been fought for this?" She couldn't believe what she was hearing. Her whole life, Jean had dreamed of hearing sweet things from Prince Charming, but never in her wildest imagination could she have thought he said things like that. She didn't know why it surprised her so much. He was the epitome of sweet. Just the way he looked at her told her how he'd loved her over several lifetimes. She knew this, because she felt exactly the same way.
Jean often thought back to the night they met. It wasn't exactly like in the movies, in its own way it was even more. He walked through the door and her eyes just followed him... she couldn't take them off of him. This was not typical whatsoever, as normally she didn't make a habit of staring at strangers and no man had ever been able to capture her attention like this. He turned around and she still wasn't able to look away. In that moment, when he stood there looking right back at her, something happened. It all began. Whether they realized it at the time or not, it all started there. They had talked a couple of times about the night they first met. It stopped them both in their tracks and they both remembered thinking "Who is this?" In her mind, he was the most handsome man she had ever seen in real life. She guessed he had to be early 30s at the oldest, but he was tall and muscular and there was something about the way he carried himself. She didn't know yet why, but she knew at that moment that her life would never be the same since she had seen this man.
Almost like a text book she didn't necessarily like him at first when she began working in the office with him. She felt he was a bit arrogant, cocky, and mean at times. She always felt so stupid around him, and it completely unnerved her that she couldn't deny that he was insanely good looking. Even worse were her feelings of confusion when thoughts of him would randomly pop into her head. She remembered the first time it happened, in her mind him leaning over her in a door way with this intense look of impending sex on his face. She didn't understand where it came from... and soon enough she began to like these thoughts and even let her mind wander to them voluntarily. As she got to know him more, she began to see how much they were alike. Clark wasn't really mean, he had a very sarcastic sense of humor like she did, and soon they began to joke constantly. She began to have dreams about him at night. She had dreams every night of her life almost, but she'd never consistently dreamed about the same person like she did with Clark.
Their friendship went on like this for around four years. She knew she always made a point to be around him, which wasn't so hard as he was a very important person where they worked and people were constantly in his office presenting issues and needing him to be Superman. He really was like Superman to her. Even when she thought he was arrogant she sensed that he had a deep desire to fix everyone. Over these four years, they both got a little more bold with comments. Later they would discover they both liked each other and had feelings for one another but neither could fathom the other feeling the same way. And of course a lot of this they tried to ignore as they were both married.
One evening they found themselves texting about nothing in particular. It started off as talking about something work related and somehow turned into more personal conversation where they ended up revealing how they really felt. He especially struggled with guilt, as his marriage had been a much longer one than hers. Something that she admired of him was that he never said one mean or horrible thing about his wife. He didn't blame her for anything, and as a matter of fact he praised her as a mother and on her career. He mainly confided in her that they had been more like roommates for a very long time and the sexual part of their relationship was almost nonexistent. She had always thought he was just joking when he would make sarcastic remarks about it to male coworkers.
After two days of almost constant talking, and realizing that this person so much like them was right under their nose this whole time, he proposed the meet up to discuss things. He was worried things would get awkward. There were no set plans of anything happening. Just meeting face to face.
Jean's heart was pounding the whole way during her drive to where they had planned to meet. It was around 11pm. The moon was beautiful that night, and had this hazy ring around it. When she got there he was already there and outside his car! She got out and leaned up against her car opposit him a few feet away. They talked for a few minutes. She was in amazement of how any man could look so delicious in basketball shorts and a tshirt. He finally motioned for her to come near him and he wrapped her up in his arms. She had been so nervous before this moment. And all of a sudden everything in the world made sense. Instinctively she wrapped her arms around him too, and laid her head on his big shoulder. They both took a deep breath and almost said in unison "that is so nice". She always wondered how it would feel to be in his arms and here she was. It was more wonderful than she ever could have imagined. And in fact, it felt like she had been lost her whole life, and she had found home. She almost didn't realize how good he smelled and how warm he was.