Sid and his soul mate

"Bubz, I think I feel this deep affinity with Mia. She really gets me here...", said Sid while pointing at his rib cage.  I looked at him and asked skeptically, "I assume you're pointing towards where you think your "soul" is? You do realize it's not quite as easy to pinpoint as that?"  He looked at me distastefully, not in the mood for mockery.  "Bubz for goodness sakes.  Here I am speaking of the soul and loftier things and you let your baser instincts for ridicule and stupidity take over and mar the conversation".  I kept a straight face and watched while he tickled a suspicious looking Mia and sang "Hey sister, soul sister...Lady Marmalade" to her. She didn't appreciate his tone deaf version very much and chose to playfully bite his nose, resulting in some shrieking (from Sid), penitence from Mia and me springing into action to stuff cotton up Sid's nose to stem the bleeding.

Later as he sat dolefully on the sofa trying to glare at Mia who was asleep on her back, he asked me "You don't believe in soul mates, bubz"? I took barely a second to answer since I have given the subject much thought over time, "Nope, not really".  He looked crushed and exhaled a piece of cotton forcefully out of his nostril. "You're joking? Everybody believes in soul mates"! I looked surprised and asked, "Really? Where'd you hear that?" He answered confidently, "Here and there". I pursued this line of questioning, "What do they say"?. He answered a little less confident, "This and that".  "Come come, they must say something more concrete than 'this that'". He muttered and looked around shifty-eyed, "You know, soul mate-shole mate"! I decided to let him off, "I'm sure there are lots of people here and there who say this and that, I just don't think there's that one person destined for you". He looked like I had struck him across the face, "You're telling me on our 4th anniversary that we aren't soul mates"! It was like telling a child that Santa wasn't real. I was treading on delicate ground now and had to be careful. "Aww bubz, just because I don't believe in soul mates and that perfect someone, that doesn't mean that I think we're not well suited or that I love you any less".  It was like he had been slapped in the face, definitely not a topic for an anniversary conversation!

"Ok, let me be more specific. I just feel we meet different people through our lives and certain partners are more suited to us during specific phases in our lives. I can't imagine some of the guys I liked in school or college having the same appeal as they did earlier!"  I looked at him and he had a silly grin on his face, "You're thinking of one of your past crushes on our anniversary, you jerk"! He snapped out of it quickly and hurriedly tried to cover up, "No, no was just thinking of the time I first saw you!"  I glared at him and chose to ignore this interruption, "Anyhow, as I was saying. Relationships need work and you work well with some people better than others.  As we get older, we have more defined versions of who we want to be with and try and hopefully things work out well with the person we choose to be with".  He still looked a bit hurt, "So we're not a match made in heaven, you're not the butter to my bread and so on?"  I scratched Mia's belly and offered him some fresh cotton for his nose, "Of course I'm the butter to your bread et all, I love you (somedays more and somedays less!) and we choose to be with each other and make it work. Of course you give me enough reason to want to make it work, but if you had met someone else who you got along with fairly well and got married to them, I'm sure you'd still be happy".  It seemed to make a little more sense to him since the horrified expression had left his face and the cotton was still firmly lodged in his nose.

"Rather un-romantic, bubz. So Mia wasn't destined to be with us?" I started thoughtfully at her, "I'm a little less decided when it comes to our relationship with animals. Would I have loved another doggy as much as I love Mia, of course I could have. But I chose Mia based on a photo (something I would never do with a person) and my sister thinks she is a reincarnation of one of my older pets, Ruslana. I think she might have something there." He was scratching his head, "So you're my soul mate for now, till I find a better one. A bit tiresome to look for one now, don't you think"? I could see where this conversation was going and decided to curb it quickly, "Don't you dare. You're stuck with me, live with your choices now"! He grumbled while shuffling away, "Like dangling a carrot in front of me. Opening my eyes to all these possibilities and then poof, shutting me in the darkness"!  I smiled and yelled after him, "Happy anniversary bubz"! He had wandered off into the other room and was staring at a photo of himself, "I'm sure lots of girls would choose to be with me based on this photo. Just wait, I'm changing my status to 'single, don't believe in soul mates, come one come all' on Facebook and posting this pic!"