There is something undeniably esteem-building to know someone finds you worth fighting for.

To see a surge of protectiveness in a man is something close to thrilling.

The main problem, of course, is that none of us (I believe) are actually interested in having our Beloved in the position of danger that we imagine could precipitate that situation.

All that to say I saw an utterly “safe” exhibition of my husband proactively defending me this weekend.

Jay (if there has ever been a question in anyone’s mind) is the computer- genius in our household. I am certainly literate, but he is the poet.

It was Friday, and he was looking at my internet activity after he came home from work, noting how much I’d up- and down-loaded.

“Was this an average day?” he asked, and I immediately began wrestling with a strangling sense of defensiveness.

“Yes, I think so,” I said, trying to remember just what I’d done, and whether I’d been on enough to be embarrassed. “Just a couple of posts on the family blog– general updates.” I relaxed, deciding I was fine.

He was still looking at the little flickering graph on my screen.

“It says here you’ve uploaded three-hundred megabytes today.”

“What?!”

“And you’re still uploading…” He killed the internet connection.

After poking around a while and reaching his verdict, he called me back into the room (I was making dinner).

“Go ahead and close all your windows,” he said. “I’m wiping your computer.”

And that’s what he did. He transfered all my projects to a portable drive, wiped everything off, and spent the next three nights and the days (Friday, Saturday, Sunday) reloading all my programs.

My computer has been glitching for a while now, and this was the final straw.

It is now “cleaner” than it was when it arrived from Dell.

I am very well-taken-care-of.