Chapter 2 - The Esoteric Definition of Love
Submitted August 24, 2012 Updated August 26, 2012 Status Incomplete | A collection of random short stories I have written over the years. Many contain theming, but there's the occasional fun and light-hearted ones in here too. Enjoy.
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Chapter 2 - The Esoteric Definition of Love
Chapter 2 - The Esoteric Definition of Love
Sitting by myself in a restaurant, waiting for her to show up, I kept turning the waiter away, imagining her arrival to be any moment now. I repeatedly fingered the small box in my pocket, nervously checking to see if it was still there.
We had been dating for the past seven months, our relationship growing day by day, hour by hour as we spent time together. Ever since I'd first met her in that convenience store, it'd been like a dream to be with her. Nowadays, it was even fairly difficult to imagine life before I had even known her. Just being around her, my personality flowered, even if I had been in a terrible mood right before. She was what made my life complete.
I sat there for hours, hardly growing impatient as I had waited for her. I tried to keep my mind from thinking of the worst, avoiding hypothetical situations where she was in a fatal car accident, or caught in a shooting I'd probably see in the news tomorrow. While I was thinking to myself, I often found my gaze continually shifting over to an elderly couple eating together, seeing how clearly happy they were together, and at the same time reminding me of how much I wanted to be with her at that moment.
Closing time finally came, and still she was nowhere in sight. I had called her several times, but reluctantly had to hang up when it went to her voice-mail. The waiter offered me a sympathetic glass of wine, which I drank rather quickly. I got up, and as the waiter wished me a safe trip home, I thanked him and left.
It was nearly a month before I'd heard anything from her again; a month in which I was reminded of what things were like before I knew her, but worse. Eating and sleeping were both extremely difficult, and I often found myself talking aloud, being heard only by me alone. I had tried to call her, email her, even visit her several times in the month, but it seemed as if she had completely disappeared from my life, disappeared without a trace. It soon felt as if I was victim of some demonic conspiracy, continually being tormented by thoughts from another world.
I had found myself heading down to the convenience store out of a sudden thirst for iced tea on day. I went to where the bottles of it normally were, and as I was heading to the checkout lines, there she was, her angelic figure standing out from everything else. as her eyes met mine, a sudden shock of surprise came over the both of us. For a moment, it almost seemed as if she was about to turn and run from me. I couldn't let that happen, and the next thing I know, I felt myself sprinting to where she was standing. I reached out and grabbed her hand and held it for what seemed a solid fifteen minutes, then I finally brought out the courage to ask: "Where have you been? I feel like it's been an eternity since we last saw each other, let alone talked."
It seemed as though she was still caught in the shock of the previous moment. She started moving her lips, but no words where coming out. Seeing as how she was, I hugged her. I hugged her as tightly as I could, and in this moment, it seemed as if the world stopped revolving completely. I could feel her crying over my shoulder, and I thought I nearly would have done the same.
Later on, when emotions settled back down, we went back to my place and talked about the past month. As it turns out, she got a job as a professional artist for a company that makes graphic t-shirts. Then, the long-waited for question came up: I asked her what she was doing the night of our dinner at that restaurant. She told me after a slight hesitation that she spent four hours before we were supposed to meet trying to make herself look her best, trying to earn my approval for that night. For the two-and-a-half after that, she said she spent telling herself she wasn't good enough for me, and that she wanted much better for me than her.
To this, I couldn't help but laugh a little. She looked extremely embarrassed, so I turned over to her. I asked her if she felt sad at all during that time, to which she responded that it didn't matter as long as I was happy. I grabbed her hands, and holding them, I said, "Luka, words cannot describe how much I missed you in this past month. You are the most beautiful person I have ever met, and it wouldn't matter how dressed for that night, my thoughts about you would have been the same, because I know that no matter how you would have looked, you would have put forth all the effort you had, just for my sake. I love you, so very, very much." Then, with tears starting to run down my face, I walked over to my bedroom, I picked up a little black box from my bed-stand, and I did what I would have done in a restaurant one month ago.
We had been dating for the past seven months, our relationship growing day by day, hour by hour as we spent time together. Ever since I'd first met her in that convenience store, it'd been like a dream to be with her. Nowadays, it was even fairly difficult to imagine life before I had even known her. Just being around her, my personality flowered, even if I had been in a terrible mood right before. She was what made my life complete.
I sat there for hours, hardly growing impatient as I had waited for her. I tried to keep my mind from thinking of the worst, avoiding hypothetical situations where she was in a fatal car accident, or caught in a shooting I'd probably see in the news tomorrow. While I was thinking to myself, I often found my gaze continually shifting over to an elderly couple eating together, seeing how clearly happy they were together, and at the same time reminding me of how much I wanted to be with her at that moment.
Closing time finally came, and still she was nowhere in sight. I had called her several times, but reluctantly had to hang up when it went to her voice-mail. The waiter offered me a sympathetic glass of wine, which I drank rather quickly. I got up, and as the waiter wished me a safe trip home, I thanked him and left.
It was nearly a month before I'd heard anything from her again; a month in which I was reminded of what things were like before I knew her, but worse. Eating and sleeping were both extremely difficult, and I often found myself talking aloud, being heard only by me alone. I had tried to call her, email her, even visit her several times in the month, but it seemed as if she had completely disappeared from my life, disappeared without a trace. It soon felt as if I was victim of some demonic conspiracy, continually being tormented by thoughts from another world.
I had found myself heading down to the convenience store out of a sudden thirst for iced tea on day. I went to where the bottles of it normally were, and as I was heading to the checkout lines, there she was, her angelic figure standing out from everything else. as her eyes met mine, a sudden shock of surprise came over the both of us. For a moment, it almost seemed as if she was about to turn and run from me. I couldn't let that happen, and the next thing I know, I felt myself sprinting to where she was standing. I reached out and grabbed her hand and held it for what seemed a solid fifteen minutes, then I finally brought out the courage to ask: "Where have you been? I feel like it's been an eternity since we last saw each other, let alone talked."
It seemed as though she was still caught in the shock of the previous moment. She started moving her lips, but no words where coming out. Seeing as how she was, I hugged her. I hugged her as tightly as I could, and in this moment, it seemed as if the world stopped revolving completely. I could feel her crying over my shoulder, and I thought I nearly would have done the same.
Later on, when emotions settled back down, we went back to my place and talked about the past month. As it turns out, she got a job as a professional artist for a company that makes graphic t-shirts. Then, the long-waited for question came up: I asked her what she was doing the night of our dinner at that restaurant. She told me after a slight hesitation that she spent four hours before we were supposed to meet trying to make herself look her best, trying to earn my approval for that night. For the two-and-a-half after that, she said she spent telling herself she wasn't good enough for me, and that she wanted much better for me than her.
To this, I couldn't help but laugh a little. She looked extremely embarrassed, so I turned over to her. I asked her if she felt sad at all during that time, to which she responded that it didn't matter as long as I was happy. I grabbed her hands, and holding them, I said, "Luka, words cannot describe how much I missed you in this past month. You are the most beautiful person I have ever met, and it wouldn't matter how dressed for that night, my thoughts about you would have been the same, because I know that no matter how you would have looked, you would have put forth all the effort you had, just for my sake. I love you, so very, very much." Then, with tears starting to run down my face, I walked over to my bedroom, I picked up a little black box from my bed-stand, and I did what I would have done in a restaurant one month ago.
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