Theirs was a chance meeting at a sports tournament. They said their hi’s and bye’s and left it at that.
One fine day, when he messaged her saying, “I’m near your place-let’s meet,” she didn’t know what snapped within her-man, she was excited. She had never met anybody so randomly, out of the blue, yet she said yes. “Let’s meet at the XYZ resto café,” she texted back.
She put on jeans and a t-shirt and took a bus there. He was at the counter with his back towards her, but she could tell it was him-the guy with the broad shoulders, standing a good three inches taller than six feet.
“Hi,” she said.
He turned around with those bright eyes and that straight-line smile of his.
“Hey, what’s up?”
Somehow, it didn’t feel like they were practically strangers who had exchanged the same greetings a year ago. He had some meeting in her city and was planning to stay for two days. The coffee came, and they talked about everything under the sun.
The fact that they both played volleyball only gave them more to talk about. It felt easy with him-the feeling was strange. She was used to being in battery-saver mode with most guys, but this boy was different. (Why does everybody think that, though? But he really was different.)
To see someone who had dreams not just for himself but also for those around him made her open up about her own dreams-ones she had never voiced before. She shared her uncertainties, how she doubted if she could ever do all that she dreamed of.
“It’s chill, you’ll do it,” he said.
No pep talk. No motivational quotes from Instagram reels saying, “A wise person once said…” Just exactly what she wanted to hear.
The guy had an aura that was undeniable-the way he carried himself, the way he spoke respectfully to everyone, the sense of purpose he had in life. It was magnetic. They never stopped talking the whole day.
She held back, though, slamming him with a casual, “I don’t get attached,” even when he was open about his feelings. They parted ways, and it was difficult not to turn back-knowing fully well he didn’t look away .
The next day went on as usual, and she thought he must have left already. But when she stepped out of her office in the evening, he was waiting outside.
“I’ll leave only on the 5 a.m. flight. Thought we could hang out,” he said.
She was more than happy. God, what she would’ve given to spend every living minute with this man. But she knew it wasn’t going to happen-he would return to another state far away, while she would have to live with the agony of not being near him.
She wasn’t ready for it, practically, even when her heart was screaming, “Tell him.”
She didn’t.
They talked again. They went into a random resto-bar and started playing foosball. She was always the serious one, but with him, she didn’t restrict herself. They were booing and cheating, both fiercely competitive, fighting tooth and nail not to let the other score a goal.
They danced to the peppy songs in the bar, and she laughed out loud when he started singing in that croaky voice of his. She knew this would hurt the moment he left-but she wasn’t ready to let go of what they had now-when they could sing and dance without a care in the world.
And they did just that.
He dropped her near her apartment just after midnight. Neither of them knew how to say goodbye.
“We could try,” he said softly.
“As I said, I don’t get attached, and I can’t do this right now,” she replied.
They hugged-a long, lingering one.
She could have said a lot of things other than that. She knew she could either be him, or be his. Even though she didn’t say it out loud, she was already his.
He made her look into herself as much as he inspired her with the fire inside him. So she chose to be him-to live with that same purpose, that same spark.
She would go on to realize all her dreams and do all the things she once kept aside, saying “later.”
Maybe in another life, she thought.
But whenever she felt confused about whether true love really existed, she always remembered those two days-when a guy came into her life all of a sudden and showed her that you could do more than just exist.
To be in love is to be alive-and she had never felt more alive than when she was with him.
