The Not So Cliché Love story

A Glimpse

Those two hours.
Those infinite moments time stopped for us both.

The water, so cool smacked our skin and between the mountains a rush of adventure came within me.
Funnily enough, with it came the serenity.
We rowed, struggled and fought against the nature. Against and somehow with it.

No thoughts came into my head. There was no space for it, just an extreme sense of being.

With me was Aarav, who was as humbled and awed as I was.

I laughed against the water and wind,  delighted by a companion who shares the moment with no words.

By the time we came back , the sun slowly started to retire. Others left a note saying they went to look around.

They must've come back some time ago.
We both sat down on the bank. There were few people here and there but none close.

He gently laid his hand on mine in the silhouette of the valley.

I  smiled gently, not looking at him
The air was warm like a summer night. Warm but cozy.

"One day, I will build a house here and look at this forever," he said to me.

I felt a stab of longing.  I looked around at the world around me. Surreal.

"A home, Aarav. Nothing less than a wonderful, perfect home."

He let out a shaky breath.

"I am scared, Dia. I want to do these things with you. But it feels so soon. We just met. Shouldn't it be more complicated?"

In those fleeting seconds, I knew I fell in love. That extreme happiness and sadness consumed me.
I felt his fear too.
But I couldn't let go.

I leaned towards him. He watched me silently as I soothed back his hair.

"I know what you mean, Aarav. We haven't seen each other in anger or disappointment. We didn't get to watch out ugly sides. We are so far away from home and it is easy to get carried away in the romance of it all.
But this feels right, you know. Let's not hurry into anything. We will take things slowly and figure it out."

I kissed his forehead and then because I felt like it, his mouth. He has to know how I feel but the moment is too precious to be hurried.

I don't know who long I sat there in his arms, for how long I let my emotions speak for me.

He took out his phone. He wanted me to hear something. The words came then, softly.

"A glimpse through an interstice caught,
Of a crowd of workmen and drivers in a bar-room around the stove late of a winter night, and I unremark’d seated in a corner,

Of a youth who loves me and whom I love, silently approaching and seating himself near, that he may hold me by the hand,

A long while amid the noises of coming and going, of drinking and oath and smutty jest,
There we two, content, happy in being together, speaking little, perhaps not a word."

"I heard this one once. Whitman, isn't it? Funny how poems start making sense now. I used to be cool before I met you" I teased, while the river hurried beside us to unknown destinations.

He let out a soft laugh.

"I don't get down on my knees remember, Dia? I fall flat on my face."