If you could only keep one memory, what would it be?

Drinking alcohol at lunchtime is a terrible sin. However, today I ended up having lunch in a London pub with a friend and an acquaintance of ours, and the result was that we each drink three pints of beer. But that's the funny thing about sins; it feels so good when one is sinning!

On the way back to my office, while exiting from the tube, I spot a poster on the wall which almost brings me to a complete stop. The poster simply says "If you could only keep one memory, what would it be?" Immediately I wonder what my happiest memories are, and the first two things that come into my mind are boyfriend T and ex-boyfriend S.

With ex-boyfriend S, I have this memory from perhaps twenty years ago. We're both naked at home in bed together, and I'm cuddling him before we fall asleep. It's a completely ordinary night, nothing at all special about it whatsoever, but suddenly for no reason I feel simultaneously both very happy and very sad. I feel very happy because I am so content, just lying there with my boyfriend in my arms, knowing that we have the rest of our lives to love and care for each other. The sadness is because at the same time I realise that both our lives will eventually come to an end, so that the happiness will be limited.

With boyfriend T, it's a much more recent memory from last month. He teases me a lot, and I sometimes even tell him that he teases me too much because I think he does. However, the truth is that his teasing often brings a smile to my face. Just like the memory with ex-boyfriend S, the memory with boyfriend T also relates to being naked in bed with him, and also just before we fall asleep. Suddenly we have a little disagreement, and before I know it, we both end up on the floor and he's tickling me relentlessly! We both laugh a lot, and shortly afterwards we're back in bed and cuddling each other again. Because we were playfully wresting with each other on the floor, I even end up with a carpet burn on one of my knees, even though no sex is involved. In spite of the original disagreement and in spite of the carpet burn, this is still a very happy memory, perhaps because of the spontaneous and unexpected ways in which boyfriend T brightens up my life all the time :-).

Regarding the memory relating to ex-boyfriend S, twenty years ago I didn't know that we were going to end up splitting up. However, these days we're very good friends, and when I'm in London we usually see each other every week if not more often. Hopefully it'll be my relationship with boyfriend T that will last forever instead. If that happens, and if I can also carry on being friends with ex-boyfriend S at the same time, then I'll be a very lucky guy indeed.