The One

have you ever met someone for the first time and couldn’t quite understand what just happened to your heart. You suddenly have only the tunnel vision which is aimed only at this persons eyes, their face that you’re fighting yourself not to grab and kiss?! This happened to me in February 2016. 1 week before my birthday. I was slowly becoming comfortable with Snapchat and posting my daily vlog got me attention from followers I didn’t know, but they all seemed to have one reason to follow me - “you’re hilarious!” they said. I was always careful about people on social media that interact with me so I always reviewed their stories to see if they’re of legal age and sound mind to be my followers. One of those followers really stood out. Male in his thirties, somewhat secretive, only posting jokes or beautiful horizons in his stories and very occasional selfies with shades on, and the most distinctive feature was his wildest loose long beard, so full, soft and shiny looking, I sent him a reply to one of these beard selfies - “👌🏼👌🏼👌🏼 Dhari” It translates to “wow beard”. (I assumed he was Indian - Panjabi because of his unshaven beard and neatly tied turban). He soon responded to me “ thanks! 😊” and we got casually talking via snap. Nothing romantic, nothing pushy or ‘trying it on’, the dialogue was in fact very respectful both ways. I had taken some time off work to recharge and to celebrate my birthday, I had some errands to take care of which involved fair bit of travelling, so it was lovely to now have this mystery man keeping me company Via snapchat dialogue as I’m taking long train trips. two days had passed and we continued snapping innocently until on the third day I suggested for us to meet for lunch. He agreed. I wasn’t hoping for anything other than two people meeting and grabbing a quick bite to eat, having a laugh and sharing some work life complaints. As I arrived in to our agreed location car park, I was looking for a closer parking spot and saw him standing by the steps leading towards the restaurant. God, he was gorgeous! Mighty taller than me, fit looking, broad shoulders, 34” waist (I eye guessed it), same shades still hiding his eyes, loose but neatly combed beard reaching just to the centre of his clearly defined pectoral chest, light blue jeans and his sexy, most proportionally worked up biceps to forearm ratio arms... I was glaring at him through my windscreen as I flusterly gathered my handbag, phone, car keys and stepped out the car. As I was walking towards him my back shivered, he pulled out his hands from his jeans pockets and took off his shades, I gazed at him like some hypnotised creature, walking directly at him. “Hello!” He cheerfully greeted me with a huge smile on his face. “Hi!” I gleeed at him and went straight in for a full body to body contact hug, wrapping both my hands around his torso, as if I was reuniting with a long lost soul I’ve always known. He reciprocated wrapping his beautiful arms around me and giggled, most sincere giggle ever; “haha, you’re ok?” - “oh I’m more than ok, so glad to finally meet you.” I answered with uncontrollable smile. We went in to the restaurant, he chivalrously opened all the doors and offered me the seat before taking his own. I wasn’t even hungry anymore. I sat opposite of him and just glared at his magnificent brown eyes and infectious pearly white smile. I had no idea what hell was happening to me, my usually calm collected very in control demeanour in any male presence suddenly was lost. I felt like a fool but not an embarrassed one. I listened to him talk about his life, his family, and although not much was registering, I felt like I could listen to him for hours. As food arrived, I finally got a chance to restore some self control and begun eating. Our eyes had met throughout the meal several times and locked for more than 5 seconds each time, always followed up by a giggle. There was definitely romantic tensions from both of us. Suddenly he stabbed a piece of food with his fork and guided it towards me, which I received without hesitation. He smiled broadly. As if by this mere acceptance of his offering I confirmed something only he knew of. As the evening progressed, we talked and laughed. As we finished our meal, he called the server for the bill. The bill was shortly delivered and he was ready to continue his chivalrous reputation by paying the entire bill but after tapping through his jeans pockets, he realised he didn’t have his wallet on him. His face suddenly turned rosey as he blushed with an unexpected moment of embarrassment, and I jumped in “I’ll get it, you can pay the next time!” Of course, I insinuated there will be a next time. He smiled at me as I paid the bill and we stood up to leave. Again, nothing short of a gentleman, he took my skimpy leather jacket and held it up whilst I slid my arms in it, he then comfortably lifted it up on my shoulders and handed me my scarf. I was feeling everything at once in that moment. Everything I never felt before. I knew it then that I wanted to hold on to this feeling for good. We walked out of the restaurant and headed for our cars. I actually don’t recall how we parted, or even if we did right there and then. The next day we met again, he took me to a cute little desert place, typical crepes and cheesecake on the menu. I wasn’t hungry, and he didn’t look like it either. He was so handsome, once again I was lost in his eyes. The cafeteria was very busy and noise from other diners was making it difficult for us to communicate.

Suddenly I felt this urge to tell him something. I was so scared that I might be risking the very notion of ‘us’ but I felt so compelled to set my truth free.

“I have a confession” I scarily said to him.

“Ok”, he responded; “is it good or bad?”

“I don’t know, you’ll be the judge of that” I said.

“Go ahead, I’m listening”

I struggled for saliva to wet my suddenly drying lips. I reached for some peach and fizzy water concoction I had ordered earlier and took a few sips.

“I’ve a criminal record” I said to him, looking down at a table, feeling like I just messed our evening up.

He stared at me and smiled. Why is he smiling? - I was thinking to myself.

“That’s ok, so do I” he responded.

“What?! Really?! Wow, you really surprised me now!” I blurted out. “What for, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“Yeah, many years ago, when I was young, 18-19, me and bunch of guys got in to a weird fight over something silly, I don’t even know what it was about. We all got arrested, I spent the night in a cell and got released in the morning. That’s it”

Holly crap, I was thinking to myself, - he’s still very innocent compared to me!

“What about you? What did you do?” He returned the question.

I didn’t know which story to share so based on his mild experience I picked the mildest one of my own.

“Yea, similar to yours, I was around 17, there was a fight in a club, police got called and whoever didn’t manage to run away, got taken to the cell. Well, not everyone, I got caught with a fake ID cos I was underage, so that was that” - and that was a lie. But I wasn’t about to tell him about my GBH charge at 14, or my possession of class A at 18, or the Police officers obstruction while they attempted to recover stolen foreign currency from me. I suddenly regretted opening my mouth about the confession all together. I wanted to tell him the truth. All of it, but I wanted to hold on to him more. And I was 99.9% certain that if I told him all of it, I would’ve never seen or hear from him again.

Good God, I really liked this guy. I more than liked him. Talking to him felt like we’ve known each other for a lifetime. We had similar goals, we both wanted to invest into property, we loved fitness and outdoors, both enjoyed foods from around the world, our sense of humour was immaculately matched.. everything about him screamed “it’s meant to be!!!” Or at least I believed it did.

He had been staring at me, my eyes for over 30 seconds now, without blinking once, then suddenly he grabs my hand and says “I’m ready to get out of here, are you?” I was flustered, “yes, let’s go!” I replied. He got up from his seat and just as the previous day, helped me to my coat, he then took my hand and clenched it tightly, tight enough to make me realise, he’s not about to let it go and forced his way through the narrow aisle between the tables, knocking few people’s chairs on his way out, and I followed him keeping my head down like some shy puppy. I could feel the stares from left and right of people, conversations stopped as we made our way out of the cafeteria. Our cars were parked in front of each other’s. I went towards my car. He stopped and looked at me. Long stare and deep breathes of air, he was gasping as though someone just pulled him up from under icy lake. “Are you ok?” I asked, seriously concerned. He leaned both of his arms against the roof of my car and just breathed. “I’m ok, just needed to get out of there”. I wasn’t sure what to do but I wanted to make it better for him. I unlocked my car and offered for him to get in. I then walked around to get in to the drivers side. He got in to the passengers next to me. “Babe, what’s up? You suddenly beg us to gasp for air, are you ok?” I asked him again.

“I’m fine, I have a mild asthma. I think that place was too crowdy, i felt stuffy that’s why I needed to get out” he explained.

“Do you have your inhaler, where is it?” I asked.

“Yes, it’s here” he pulled out his inhaler from his pocket and after a few shakes he took a deep breath of a single pump.

“Is that better?” I was looking at him, my hand on his arm, the other on his thigh.

“Ye, I’m ok, it’s fine, it happens occasionally”. He explained. “I have to say something”, he followed up.

I was nervous, what will he say? Is he leaving because he’s not feeling too well? Did I mess something up? I didn’t want to urge him to continue his need to say whatever it was.

“I think...” he took a long pause gazing in to my eyes. I’ve never seen anyone’s eyes so bright and so clear ever before. “You’re the One” - he finished.

I was stunned. I didn’t know what to say or do, how to act or react. I was just frozen. What words?! “The one!” This is beyond romance. This only happens in movies or to people who.. well anyone but not me! “The one” he said! At that point I wasn’t even fully sure what it meant but I knew it was a huge deal!

I lost myself inside his eyes as I’ve done since I met him the day before and I just knew that this will be something extraordinary. We kissed for the first time, the street was dark, there were few passers by, we were sat in my car like two teenagers kissing like it was our first time.

A few minutes later I started my engine and drove away with no destination in mind, just drove feeling in absolute bliss of this astonishing mans presence.

End of Part 1