We met 11 months 6 days and 17 hours ago in person, I never went more than a month without seeing her, between the exams and seminars, the teacher parades, and assignments I always found time to be with her and so did she. In our 3-year-old relationship, she had become the missing part I was desperately looking for but it’s been a long time… every hour since had been a nightmare to us. She was in Mumbai and I in Pune. The long-distance relationship is breaking my ass, I’m shattered inside, I can’t describe it in words how much I miss her, the COVID-19 has broken us even more, somehow I find that these long calls and video chats are not enough for me and not to mention the long horror of the final year students, the classes and the exams and that certain unpredictability.
The time in the crisis though has been kind to me. I learned a lot and was fortunate enough to not get infected, you see I’m a free bird, and this lockdown and staying inside has knocked me out of sense in many ways and these times of crisis demanded my anchor, my love, Nina.
We’ve been together long enough to not be separated, seen enough to get through life and every discission I make has an influence on my life. I was a pretty different human when I met her, it's safe to say she shaped me into who I am, I still need work but I guess it’s her job now!
Ups and downs aside I feel maintaining a successful long-distance relationship is a tough thing, but if you have the right partner, I guess all the effort is worth it. And I know she’s the one and I can’t let her go. Nina is not your average girl, she’s smart, driven, and sensible, what’s more, is her impeccable presence of mind, now that’s a combination tough to find. She has her own business up and running and she’s humble too, the best of both worlds.
The year had been tough on both of us and I give her all the credit for making it bearable for me, she was the burning lamp in ice-cold winter providing me the warmth I needed to survive. And now that things are finally coming back to normal and that her birthday is approaching too, I can’t wait to meet her again in person it’ll be like coming to the surface of land again after ages of the voyage. I want my sunset to be green.
The plan has been made and only the arrangements are left, it's going to be a perfect set up. The day before her birthday I’ll go around the town and visit all our favorite places, maybe ill rent a horse and ride around with her, I guess it’ll be too cliched! So ill rent a car probably a convertible. The plan is to go to each and every one of our special places and leave a souvenir or a note relating to the memories I made with her in that very place. It’s like the entire city rakes with our love!
First, I’ll go to the coffee shop we had our first date and set up a birthday cake and ask the workers there to sing for us, I don’t think they’ll mind. Then after a long session of heartfelt talks, we go for a walk around the beach and how will we reach there? In our rented convertible. The thing is she won’t know what’s going on cause I'll tell her we are just going to meet and talk. When the surprises arrive, I'll act surprised too!
On the beach, ill have a balloon seller who’ll come out of nowhere and wish her happy birthday and give us some balloons, then comes a flower boy who’ll wish and give her some flowers I preselected a day ago. All this time ill keep her distracted in our talks and when it happens, we both will be surprised.
Then we reach the place where I proposed to her and there will be a heart with our names carved on it on the beach. And lastly, when we reach in for dinner the waiter will serendipitously bring us our favorite beverages with our favorite snacks as a starter, which I preordered a day ago. No menu, no orders or waiting, just pleasure.
Finally, the day comes when we meet… she’s dressed in her yellow top and black jeans, a blue denim jacket for the cozy Mumbai breeze, somehow I'll never be able to thank the wind, how many times it had brought us close and somehow I’m also upset that I won't be able to pull out my jacket to cover her if she feels cold, not that I had a jacket but its fun to imagine.
There stood the girl of my dreams, the apple of my eye, and the wallpaper of my iPhone. Oh, how long I’ve waited for this moment, and now it's finally here, and honestly, I don’t know what to do. Her eyes always bereaved me starstruck, the way she looked at me that sudden angelic gaze, it pierced my heart!
I held her in my arms for a while, it felt like eternities have passed, my world was finally complete, but it was only a few moments… I realized we still were her home vicinities and ran a cold chance of getting caught by someone who knows her. I wish her a happy birthday and we begin to walk. Hours on phone, countless texts, and now I was speechless, I had no idea whether to touch her, see her or just talk, I was in the Zen state of bliss.
So, she began to talk, I listened. Her words didn’t make sense to me, I wasn’t listening. Her voice was like music to my ears, I’ve listened to it for hours on end but this was a private concert. I am a talkative person myself, to be honest, I’m on the talking one most of the times but today I wanted to listen.
Walking for a while we spontaneously decide to visit our first date place the coffee shop. As she puts her hand out to stop a cab, a red convertible comes nearby and asks if we need a ride. (it’s the same car I rented yesterday, I planted to a place where he could see us and as soon as he saw my signal, came to the rescue.) We both got surprised by it (I faked). I asked her if this was her plan to surprise me and complimented. (classic decoy).
We hoped in and enjoyed the ride. Soon the coffee shop was here and we got out. I had our table reserved, the one where we talked for the very first time. As we settled, a huge chocolate cake floated to our table with 1 burning candle, and the staff started to sing happy birthday to her. She was stoked! Her eyes teared up with joy. After the song, the old manager came next to her “girl you’re lucky to have such a dear guy there for you.” She said in her teary voice “I know!”
We talked some more when arrived the same order we had on that day. The time flew in a flash and it was about to be sunset, we decided to go to the beach and watch the sunset.
Serendipitously we noticed a place on the beach where something was drawn on the sand. Oh, to our surprise! We found that it was a heart carved in with our names on it.
She started crying there, she never expected this. We hugged and saw the sunset right there. The time had stopped and we were one with the universe….
I take her to the restaurant for my final surprise, a candlelit dinner. We sit on a sea-facing table, giving us the Miami feels, and just like that came in the preordered dishes. She never had a birthday celebrated this way. As favorite dishes came through without us ordering anything, she fell more and more for me. She was amazed at how I remembered her favorite dishes and snacks and orders from years ago. I told her I want to remember every moment I spent with her. It’s all I had.
When we finished and it was our time to part, the driver arrived again magically. I was pissed at how good he was. We sat again in the mobile and went ahead at a slow pace, I wanted this moment to last longer…
I made the car stopped a few blocks away from her home. I wanted to walk her home. We held hands and walked like we own the damn pavement! We talked about how it is and how it will be and how it should have been. My voice cracked as I saw her building and knew it was time to say goodbye, the agony of alone was about to abode me again, I didn’t know when we’ll meet again and in what ways. All I had was her this moment! I held her in the moonlight and we shared a deep passionate kiss. Our worlds melted into one. I could feel the ecstasy pouring into my heart… it was beautiful.
This is way too good 🥺🥺
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