A feeling called Love

The whole world seemed so distant all of a sudden, as if it had ceased to exist altogether. My otherwise always-filled-with-thoughts mind had become silent, as if no other thought seemed imperative right now. As my bare feet continued to move ahead and make those little imprints in the sand, Nick slowly held my hand. Still looking down, I smiled. Every moment with him seemed so precious and yet so normal, just like breathing, like it had been happening since forever, keeping me alive all this while.

Nick and I were meeting after a year. Even though we had made sure we kept talking and updating each other about our lives, there was so much I wanted to tell him. I wanted to look at those eyes as they twinkled every time he was excited about something, those lips part when he smiled, and those hands move when he spoke. I wanted to capture all that I saw, lock it all up in a chamber of my mind, to be able to go through them all those times when I missed him.

After walking in silence for some time, we found a clean patch and sat down. It was a wonderful morning, the sun had just risen. We began to talk. He told me about his new friends and how weird he thought they were while I told him about the hard-to- catch-up-with city life. With Nick, it was so easy to laugh at my own silly problems and yet know that he understood how I actually felt. I was happy. I remember resting my head on his shoulder and looking at those ships in the distance, wondering if the people in the ship could see us. How every time I saw a couple my mind would build up a love story of its own, I wondered when the sea farers saw us, what were the stories that their minds weaved around us.

After what seemed like infinity, the sun took its place higher in the sky. I got up, pulled his hand and led him towards the sea. I saw him bending down and picking up a tiny pink sea shell for me. I smiled as I took it and put it in my pocket. As the cold water touched our feet, we kept walking further, letting the waves wash us down. When we stopped, we were wet till our knees. There were kids playing in the water around us. I saw him looking at them, took my chance and splashed his face with the salty water. Nick was laughing. I saw his eyes twinkle, his lips apart and realized how much he meant to me.

And then all of a sudden I heard myself saying, “I love you Nick”. His grip on my hand tightened. “I love you more Anne...So much more” and I knew he meant it, he did.