“I’ll be leaving at about 10:30.” said he. The bright sunshine added a circle of gold to his hair. Standing beside the bed, the big shadow of his tall, muscular body spread over her.

“No, not 10:30, 11:00 please,” she pleaded in her low, soft voice, looking up at him with all her heart written on her face. he looked like a shining knight in his sports wear. She was sitting on the bed with a thick warm quilt around her。

“Honey, you know I have business at hand. Besides, what does 30 more minutes count for? I have to leave anyway.” His drowsy smile and lazy voice floated in the air, she turned away from him and bent her head over the soft, warm quilt on her lap. Uncontrollable tears welled up from her eyes.

“You know it counts for a great deal, every minute with you counts……” her muffled voice came out and she felt his warm hand on her left arm.

He sat down behind her, and hugged her tenderly and a little bit absent-mindedly. There were something about his work and his business weighing heavily in his mind, but he just could not be tough enough to leave her as he planned.

Because of their work and some special reasons, they could not be together all the time. She was feeling the acute pain in her lung, there was a lump gradually rising from her heart to her throat,  and she felt choked with sadness.

Leaning on his chest, she could feel the strong pounding of his heart so close to her ears. He cuddled her body lightly with his right arm. She touched his watch, crying for it to slow down a little, or better, to stop for a while. He felt her touch and lifted it to his eyes, “25 minutes left,” said he, in his usual quiet voice.

“I know, ” she grumbled and nestled more closely to him. It was like a dream that they first met in the dancing hall of their university, got closer every day, and were finally together. She wasn’t quite clear how it was happening, but it happened all the same. She accepted this quietly and without resistance, like she accepted all the hardships and happiness in her work，all the reunion and partings in her life， and  all the failures and successes in her career. This is her nature, to accept what the God has to offer and make the best out of it.

“12 minutes left, ” his voice woke her up from her trance.

“uh,” she was playing with the fingers of his big hand, his palm was warm and a little sweaty. They were bathing in the pleasant sunshine and the room was pleasingly nice and bright.

“I won’t keep you here for one more minute,”at 10:58, she jumped out of bed and smiled her small, brave smile toward him, “a nice hug before we say bye, dear.”

He was sitting and she was standing. He put his arm around her small waist and she pressed his head to her bosom lightly, caressed his hair for a moment, then it was 11：00.