Chocolate

Today's my birthday, thought I try writing a romance, I hope you enjoy it

I bought a box of chocolate for Jenny, I plan to give it to her one day. Jenny is a seminar lecturer at one of the most prestigious university in the capital, like a painting, I can only admire her from afar. Whenever we correspond with letters, it feels like a breath of fresh air that hits me, with every letter, our relationship grows.

I decided to take the train to the capital to deliver the chocolate, the snow caps covering the mountain tops were warming to me, as if they were telling me to push through this snowy hardship to give her these chocolates. The train stopped at one stop and an old man boarded the train and sat beside me. The old man looked at me and asked, “You seem excited, are you meeting someone special?”

“It’s my pen pal that I’m meeting. I’m passing her this box of chocolates,” I said. The old man asked if she was special, and I said, “She is special to me. She was there on the days when I was down. If the world was crashing down, I’d choose today the last day with her.” “Does she know you’re coming?” the old man asked. I told him that she knew.

“I wish you luck on your adventures, young man” The old man asked before alighting off the train. I looked out at the sights of the countryside, “Man the weather sure is fine today” I alighted at Bakkita station and started walking towards where we were planning to meet. Cold day today but it’s nice with me tucked into my winter clothes,

I finally meet her, she is in a brown trench coat with a brown suit underneath with fancy loafers. “Hey!! Didn’t know that we wore the same pair of loafers!!” She said, “Well it is pretty comfortable, what are you in the mood for?” I replied enthusiastically. We decided to go to a cafe nearby to chat over some hot coffee, she had a cappuccino and I had black tea and she had a strawberry shortcake while I had biscuits to dip into my tea.

While we were talking, I burnt my lips on the metal cup of black tea it was served in, Jenny busted out laughing, “You burnt your lip!! You’re so funny!!” She said out loud, “I never asked in any of our letters to each other but what do you do for a living?”

“I’m a restaurant manager, my occupation is far less impressive than yours. Your words actually touch people while I am just a lowly restaurant manager.” I said, “What did you study in university?” Jenny curiously asked, “Bachelor’s in Literature and a minor in Physics” I replied shamefully. “Woah!! You’re probably smarter than me!!” Jenny shouted while throwing her hands up in the air

I said to her that it was nothing special, she was the real smart one however she rebuttal that I have a bachelor's in literature and a minor in physics and that I’m the smart one in this case, I reiterated that she was the smart one since she has published a few journals and became a proper seminar lecturer. She cuts me off and tells me that I lead an honest life, I live in a life where I go through the hards and easys of life while for her, it’s the same thing every day.

We finished up at the cafe, we walked around for a while at the city square, she showed me around as it’s not often I visit the capital, we ended up at the smoking area for a smoke and she asked me a question, “I never asked you this and I’ve asked you a lot but how old are you?” when I replied with me being thirty-two, it turns out she is just two years older than me. “Wow!! You really are younger than me! I could never tell though” She said out loud, “Well it’s one of those things you don’t really tell people you know” I replied, she agrees with it and looks at her pocket watch, “Oh crap, it’s about time I got back” “I’ll walk you back then” I suggested.

While walking back I thought about how I would give her the box of chocolates that I have in my bag, after thinking about it, I figured I’ll just give it to her straight instead of thinking up some fancy method of giving it to her.

Once we reached the front of the university, I took out the box of chocolate and handed it to her “Here, I thought you might like it, it’s dark chocolate, seventy-five per cent like how you like it. It’s a speciality from my hometown, thought you might appreciate it.” I rubbed the back of my neck in anticipation as she looked at me in surprise, my heart hung low at that moment but suddenly her face lit up and she smiled like a Cheshire cat with the excitement of a child grabbing onto the box of chocolate.

“I wish I had gotten you a gift as well!! Thank you so much!!” She said out loud as usual of her demeanour. “I-” Before I could say anymore I cut myself off, somehow something in me just stopped as I couldn’t say what I wanted to say. As she was about to leave me, she said “Let’s see each other another time! Let’s do this more!!” I agreed but something was still stuck in my heart, as if I needed to say this out loud to her, to want to scream it out into the ocean but somehow I felt like it would disappear once spoken and my feelings would remain like these bittersweet chocolates. 

We waved goodbye to each other but somehow my wave felt dejected suddenly as I was walking towards the train station I heard the clacking of a pair of loafers running towards me and as I turned around, I felt a soft puck on my cheek. “You look so cute today!! I want to know you better since you seem so interesting.” Jenny said when giggling like an innocent schoolgirl. I smiled so wide that I could barely see anything, “I’ll be seeing you around too I guess” I said with joy in my heart. I boarded the train back to my hometown and I couldn’t get my mind off her, I felt so happy I thought to myself “My heart has become sweet like chocolate.”