It's a curious story, a bit-by-bit convergence. My soul-mate, if soul-mate she is, is the same gender. Nothing physical about it but the intimacy lies in the affinity. I'd known her something more than a year, met at Zumba, had a brief chat then decided to pop in the cafe on the discovery of particular preferences for dance exercise. It took off from there. No magic or excitement. It dawned on us both at around the same time but neither voiced it until recently.

It was small events that "proved" the affinity. Like, unusually for music-lovers we'll both buy LP records in preference to CDs and never stream music; we chose the same design Christmas card for each other and they crossed in the post. We both like similar poetry and art - I think it surprised us both to find we liked both Kenneth Patchen and Adrienne Rich. That's aside from a commonality of attitude on living and business. Too much to list really. It's another instance of unconditional love in my sphere though with her, there's nothing to set conditions about. Trust? That doesn't honestly come into it. It's assumed.

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