Finding Him and Me

2nd Epilogue

Arjun's POV

12:00 am
14th April 2023

To: aliamalhotra04@gmail.com

Alia,

It's my birthday tomorrow. I'll be 21.

I shifted into my new house last night. I'm hoping you saw the pictures I sent you. I did it baby, I got my degree in architecture and built my first house. My house. Our home.

A small double story abode set beyond a huge front yard, a round red door, mother of pearl-colored walls, stone stairs, marble and wooden flooring, a sofa without cushions and a plain wall for projector nights. The bedroom has a huge bed with posters equipped with handles and carabiners hanging from the ceiling.

Baby, I've been writing to you every week for five years. Tell me you're finally ready to see me. I have it all planned out for us, you can come to........

Peace is when you can anticipate something rightly. It may not be favorable but it's the only possible outcome. Sending Alia emails knowing she wont reply to them is peace. I'm not a fool, it's not my last resort, it's not pathetic. It's peaceful.

*******

Alia's POV

I try to push away the incessant voice in my head that is constantly screaming, 'your mind is clouded with visions and a picture of him that's not true. He isn't the same boy who loved you more deeply than any man in the whole world. Stop it! You'll be hurt. Who knows how time has changed what? Alia, you deserve better than to do this to yourself.'

But I think, fuck the consequences, I have to know. Just once. Does he really love me like he did? Am I his center when he spins away? If our souls are the same; surely he needed me, I ought to be with him, near him and hold him. I won't know the truth until and unless I seek it out. I need to seek the truth. I need to find him.

Arjun's like a permanent cell in my body. He is always inside my mind, body, soul and heart. He is the smell that will never fade, the memory that will never recede, the image that will never distort, the feeling that will never pass away and the touch that will forever be upon my skin. I am incapable of forgetting even the smallest detail about my Prince. His honey brown eyes, the way his cheeks concave semi-circularly when he smiles; not a dimple, just a curved dip, his t-shirts and perpetual brooding, bare feet and black jeans, slightly gelled soft hair and warm but sweaty but cool hands. Oh, those hands. The feeling of his torturously wicked, unfairly skilled, ludicrously pillowy, stupidly demanding, regally gentle mouth. His lips and his tongue. I can never forget. And I want more. How can I not? That would defy fate and destiny and my deepest purest wishes.

4:00 am
15th April 2023

To: arjunk99@gmail.com

Arjun,

Yes. Yes. Yes, to everything.

Yours,
Alia

16th April 2023

Today, I meet him after 5 long years. I'm shivering with excitement. The back of my eyes burns with the light they're undoubtedly reflecting. I'm not dressed to impress; I'm dressed to make a statement. The white halter neck midi dress with a short slit and silver gleam says what words don't. As a young girl I always wanted to save myself for marriage, then Arjun came along. Since then, I have saved myself for him. I wear the first luxury brand shoes I ever bought- Jimmy Choo's Ivette. The 3-year-old precious strappy silver sandals complete my virginal look. No purse, no makeup, no fancy hairstyle, no jewelry; except the blue pointe shoe pendant Arjun gifted me.