As she descends the escalator like a swoon-worthy debutante, my mind time-lapses through all those moments we had - from that first day two years ago when it all began, to camp, through the flatline and the lull that followed, to doting on each other but never dating - down to a few seconds ago, when I saw her hair, and knew it was her.
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Serendipity
There she was.
Two eventful years on from when it all began, there she was.
That first message, having tipped over so many dominoes, had led me serendipitously, back to her.
If there was ever a moment to wax lyrical, this was it - if there was ever a time to sweep her off her feet, this was it.
I can't quite describe how it felt – surreal? dreamy? She was wearing a lot of black, a black coat, black boots and a black sweater which made her skin pop - but nothing stood out more than the gorgeous smile she wore in between giggles.
It took her a few seconds to walk towards me, but for me it was all happening in slow motion. For some reason I didn't get up, I let her walk towards me and say hi, and I still didn't stand up – for the life of me I don't know why I did this – well I do, I listened to that stupid voice in my head that kept telling me not to be too eager or too anxious when I see her – that singular decision, to not stand up and hug her and say something sweet like Oh my God I can't believe that I'm getting to see you one more time, would set the tone for the rest of all that happened that day.
A shoddy overture.
She sat down and looked at me, with a smile on her face. I can't remember exactly what we talked about but I do recall that we kept on looking at each other intensely – I was completely fixated on her, and even though deep down I wanted to do something overt to let her know how excited I was to be finally close to her one more time, I refrained from showing any sort of emotion – I was forming bad guy (acting all cool).
Things started warming up, I told her about how my stay in the US had been so far – where I had visited and how fun it was to take the subway after so many years – she commented on this:
"Oh my, how do you already know how to take the trains?" She asked, slightly surprised
"Oh yeah, well I used to take the Metro (the Russian subway) a lot back when I lived in Moscow" I responded.
I asked her about school and she mentioned that it was tough but she had been giving it her best and in fact was on the Dean's list – quite impressive. The first thing she talked about that really got her talking was how she was joggling so much at the same time – school, work and taking care of her aunt – she particularly stressed the taking-care-of-her-aunt part.
I barely have time to myself after school, I have to rush back to do so much at home – plus my aunt is strict and I don't have all the freedom I would want. I'm staying strong through it all though...
