When I’m with my boyfriend, I like to look extra nice, especially if we’re going out. I try to be sure my hair and makeup look good, and I try to dress up a little bit. Imagine my horror when I ended up with a sty on my eye right before a much-anticipated weekend getaway with him. I was so bummed. When you get a sty, your eye not only swells up and looks gross, you have to cast aside your makeup for its duration so it can heal. So there I was Friday morning, looking fine as hell with this giant ball on my right eyelid.

Now this man I love is an emotionally intelligent person. After I voiced my irritation and annoyance about said sty to him, he took a good look at me, kissed me, and said, “You’re beautiful no matter what.” I thought I looked tired and gross, but whatever. We packed up our stuff. I was secretly hoping I’d have a miraculous healing moment and tossed my makeup bag in my suitcase before we hopped in the car and took off.

I whined a lot about my eye on the way to our destination. So much so that I eventually promised him I’d shut up about it for the rest of the weekend. He laughed because he knows me better than that:  when I worry about something, everyone around me pretty much has to hear about it (sorry, friends!). But I put my sunglasses on and tried to suck it up. I was wishing I had some of those lightly tinted John Lennon specs so that I could wear them indoors and look mysterious and hip instead of like Rocky Balboa after a fight. But I don’t have those kind of glasses, so I made do with my wayfarers – and pretended to be Tom Cruise in Risky Business instead.

The whole weekend, my eye was just gross. I woke up both mornings to a lot of swelling and soreness. Both mornings, my darling man went to get us coffee and brought me warm compresses to hold over my face. He kissed me and cared for me and held my hand and never once acted the least bit embarrassed that his girlfriend looked like a defeated prize fighter. He took me to the beach – my favorite place on Earth – and laughed with me and held me and loved me. I’m sure he would have preferred me to be at 100%, but you’d never know it from the fun we had.

When we don’t look our best, we don’t feel our best. And I was insecure as hell about my eye all weekend. But this man the Universe brought me? He never once let go of my hand. He looked right into my gross swollen eye as he told me he loved me. He reminded me over and over again that he thinks I’m beautiful. And you know what? He made me believe it – sty and all.