After years of penny pinching their time had finally come.
They had beaten the odds and the nay-sayers and for the first time in years - they were actually proud.
This change in lifestyle came as a shock to many; a surprising contrast to the life they had lived.
Days were worked and earnings were spent as they extracted the most out of each moment. No consideration was given to the future as to do so would distract from the 'now', and the now was all they wanted. Their existence began and ended with each other, anything else was ignored.
An outsider might have called this a waste, but to them it was anything but.
They lived for each other and part of that was seeing their beloved exalted and fulfilled.
To treat the other was to treat one's self, and for the longest time their union was a blissful euphoria, deaf to the passing of time and the criticisms of others.
Until one day the euphoria lifted.
The fog of youth dispersed before the warmth and radiance of truth.
Dread filled their hearts as they, for the first time, took account of their situation.
Time was speeding up and they were getting older.
Older and more worn.
Vitality's diminished returns; from one January to the next produced a palpable deterioration.
The cost of the 'now' had become too great, and remaining ignorant of time was driving them toward a perilous situation.
Soon their bodies would decline as would their earning potential.
Medical bills and doctors visits were becoming more frequent, almost routine, and neither of them were truly sick.
Without a plan they would be unprepared for the realities of middle age.
The idea of being helpless to each other's suffering was a terrifying thought - a vulnerability they had never considered.
But it was there and they had seen it.
With a resolve born of the love they shared they decided it was time for change.They took to their finances like gardeners clearing a bed overrun with toxic weeds.
Budgets were made and anything that didn't fit within them were cast aside as deadweight.
No more restauranting multiple nights a week. No more spending on thing of no consequence.
His money hungry hobbies were benched and her passion for the newest prettiest things were packed away.
They would buy their food in advance and prepare weekly meal plans.
They would forego unnecessary trips and holidays, keeping only to the ones that were spent with family.
They used the snowball technique and obliterated their unnecessary debts and destroyed the insidious credit cards that caused them.
They lost contact with those who did not understand, they lost friends.
In the eyes of some they became self righteous, frugal and distant.
In truth they were the same people - only preparing for a time when preparation would be impossible.
Helpless against the inevitable suffering of sickness and old age.
But not now, not any longer.
They stood together - defiant in the face of time's aggression.
Today they were proud.
Today they had won a victory against time.
"They accepted the offer."
There was a stunned silence.
"Y-you mean... it's ours?"
He nodded with tears welling in his eyes.
"We have a home, an actual home!"
"A place where we can grow old together, my love."
"A place to start a family."