Truly, Madly, Deeply

He looked at me and smiled. A flood of warm memories overtook me and I found myself smiling childishly.
It had been six months.
Was the time apart going to make things alright for him and me, or was it just going to make it worse?
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She looked beautiful, as always. Six months had given her some dark circles under her eyes, but that just showed how hard she was working on her new novel. She wore lenses now, instead of glasses, and when I smiled at her, she smiled her beautiful smile back at me, blushing prettily, the way we used to. It triggered something within me.
Oh God, I hope this works.
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He looked so handsome, so smart. He still had that boyish grin, that jet black hair that was unmanageable. His perfume was still the same, a manly odour that kind of made you feel senseless, overpowered, but in a good way.
He said, "You want to get something to eat?"
I said, "Let's go to Raincrust," and eagerly waited for his reaction.
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Aah. Raincrust.
The restaurant was slightly different now, they had altered some designs, spread over a slightly larger area.
It was a tiny place, really. We had discovered it by mistake, wandering into the wrong alley, but the restaurant was so pretty we decided to stay. An artificial canopy of trees covered our heads, and twinkling lights illuminated the beauty of that little restaurant, where couples in love went to. The sound of falling rain was the constant music playing, but you never really ever got bored of it. Like you fall in love with the person in front of you, you fall in love with the restaurant, too.
This place was always going to be the same to me, a place associated with some of my fondest memories.
This was our first ever date, hers and mine. I remembered the expensive wine, her lilac and pretty flowers perfume, her eyes smeared with kohl, that would never leave my face. I remember loving the fact that she gave me her complete, undivided attention, I remembered how we loved the food so much, we practically scraped it off our plates and then laughed together. I remembered how we kissed, suddenly, and at that moment, I felt like the happiest person on earth, with her under that lovely canopy, the sound of the soft rain, and people around us smiling at us, some even clapping.
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Six months. And yet, both of us remembered the way, through the narrow alleys, we navigated our way and sat inside the lovely restaurant.
I remembered our first date as though it was yesterday.
But it was two years ago. November 18, 2013. We spent two beautiful, fantastic years with each other, and then, on December 3, 2015, he gave the big news.
He had received the job. But it was seven hours away.
Long distance was never our thing. So we gave up. It sounds so much easier now, but back then, my life was falling apart.
He left me, he broke me. I loved him, I loved him so much. And yet, the job meant so much more to him than me. Well, of course it did, I couldn't take that way from him, but I was still broken, and I had spent the last six months hating him, missing him, crying over him, hating him again, then hating myself, feeling mad at him, sick of the world, till it was a complete cycle.
But now, six months later, when he's back with that boyish grin and his chivalrous little mannerisms I had come to fall in love with, my feelings of anger and hate seemed to just...fade away. Seeing him in front of me, nothing else mattered. I loved this man.
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I should never have left her. Now it all came back to me, what I was missing out on.
Work kept me busy. At least, that was what I told myself, but it really wasn't that way. I made work keep me desperately busy so I wouldn't get a chance to think about her, about us. Yes, I did leave her, I did break her, but she had to understand...I was broken too. I hated leaving her, hated seeing her cry.
What I had done was unforgivable and I knew it.
But, I was willing to go to any lengths to win her back. I would do anything.
I would never leave her again.
I loved her. As much as I did two years ago, as much as I did six months ago, and as much as I would do for the rest of my life.
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The silence was awkward at first, but then we made up for it. Small talk, and then we moved on to talking about bigger things. It wasn't hard at all. It felt like he had never left.
I told him everything that had happened in my life, including the book, which I knew he had read and liked. He had sent me an email.
He told me everything about his life.
It felt like old times again, and then suddenly it clicked, what was different.
We had both matured. We had indeed grown apart, but our time apart had only made our love grow stronger.
And as we were talking, I felt out of this world. I felt so happy talking to him, being with him again.
And suddenly, we leaned toward each other, and kissed.
It was our first kiss after six months, and we took in as much as we could of each other. It just happened, in the middle of a sentence, and the best thing was, it felt so similar and yet so different. But honestly, I wouldn't have had it in any different way.
The canopy was still over us, and the sound of soft rainwater, and the cheers and claps around.
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FIFTY YEARS LATER
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She walked out slowly into her front porch, where I was sitting, staring at the sunset, a soft smile on my lips.
Age had done little to diminish her beauty.
She came and sat next to me, and I took her hand.
We both stared together into the sunset, hand in hand.
I turned to her and softly said, "I love you."
She smiled, blushing slightly, and said "I love you too."
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They discovered the two seventy-five-year-olds together on the front porch.
Their hearts had stopped beating, but their hands were still interwined together.
Some of them had tears in their eyes. They looked at their children and said, "That, is what is called love."

Author's Note

Please leave a review. Constructive criticism is welcome and appreciated.

Reviews

[EvaThornburn]

I enjoyed this write. Kept me entertained from start to finish. Your imagery was spot on. Thanks,for sharing. Eva

[Aatreyee Ghoshal]

Thank you so much. :")
This meant a lot, I'm so glad you liked it.

[EvaThornburn]

Your quiet welcome. It was my pleasure. Eva