Love stories should not begin with “Once upon a time” and end with “And they lived happily ever after. “ “Once upon a time girl meets boy”, is just a prologue and an introduction of the main characters of the story.
Love stories begin in the ” And they lived happily ever after “ part.
It is because you both strive, to keep it together, for the love story to thrive and stay, a love story. The premise of all love stories, should not be, on how you met or who brought you together, but how you REMAIN together.
The challenge would be, for Prince Charming to remain, or at least resemble his Prince Charming self and whatever he stood for, years before.
Or for the Princess, not to turn to Zena, the Warrior Princess. So when Cinderella‘s shoes do not fit her anymore, child-birth , weight gain and all, would she still keep her glass slipper or forever break it into pieces?
Or when Prince Charming too forgets time, while in the company of his friends, does he ran back home at the strike of midnight? Would Prince Eric still be patient with Ariel, when she may sometimes smell, fishy? Or does Ariel know at all that she may sometimes smell fishy?
Or does the Prince, shower Princess Aurora, with feathery kisses when she wakes up in the morning? Or was his kiss, just a one time, big time thing? Or would Princess Aurora, after sleepless nights of breastfeeding her youngster, would wish once again for her ” hundred years sleeping ” self? Or when Prince Charming relapses, and turns back to Beast, should Belle still stand by his side?
Same goes, with the Prince turning back into a frog, will the Princess ran back home to Daddy, the King? And when the mirror, now, says that Snow White is not the fairest of them all? Does she eat the poisoned apple herself? Or, would the Prince go to another kingdom and look for the maiden, whose name the mirror says, is now the fairest in the land?
Or, would Snow White fall, for the Royal Huntsman instead?
How do you stay together, after happily ever after? You work on it. You stay as a team. You set a goal as to where you want your family to lead. It is because, you do not go through life and family without a goal. A healthy lifestyle? A house? A bigger house? A car? A bigger car? Your children’s education? A better school?
You do not look at each other’s differences and faults with regret but as challenges. You stop blaming each other. You stop pointing fingers and waste time finding out who’s at fault. (for you never will) You should wake up to each other’s sweet voices and not to other people’s phone calls.
You should be careful with the hurtful words you hurl towards each other, for they would not only do damage to the heart but the soul as well. You relive the times you met. You do some things you used to do when you were just getting to know each other. You go out on a date. Watch a movie. Dine out. Have coffee. Whisper. Listen and give each other time.
Let each other feel that those few limited minutes are reserved for him or her alone. And while dining out or watching a movie, while you are across each other, try not to receive trivial texts. Or stay long on the phone. And waste the date. Nothing or nobody else’s life is important other than the family that you built. Work on it, together. Or take each other for granted and drift apart. And when you lose everything, do not be surprised when the rest just becomes, ” Once upon a time. “
