On October 10th, 2015, a little before 2 in the afternoon on a sunny fall Saturday, I was standing at the counter of the Nicholas Coffee Company in downtown Pittsburgh, sipping a Cinnamon Maple Latte and breathing in the rich aroma of fresh ground beans and tea leaves shipped from around the world, when the proprietor asked me a question.

And after 45 years, 10 months, and 13 days of walking this earth—27 days, 20 hours, and 40-something minutes after walking down the aisle—I uttered for the first time ever the phrase, “My husband.”

As in, “The coffee is for my husband.”

Oh, sweet syllables: their shape in my mouth so wonderful, so strange.

Photo, Noah Magnifico