A Love Story Owed

“Have you ever imagined your heel getting stuck in the tram tracks?

Imagine that happening. Then a handsome stranger dashes by and helps you untangle yourself. And that will be the beginning of your love story.”

I couldn’t help but smile at the image of a modern day prince charming. Not quite the white horse, but apparently shining armour didn’t quite go out of style.

“Now tell me one. Tell me my love story.”

For the life of me, I couldn’t come up with anything original. Either that, or every romantic movie known to mankind had already covered the plots I’d come up with, and you had watched every single one of those movies.

So let me tell you your love story now, now that you’ve left, now that we’re separated by sea. Your love story has no plot, no where’s and wherefore’s. It is just a story, of two who met and fell in love.

This is your love story.

You’re waiting.

You glance at your watch in frustration. It’s been an hour and she’s yet to show up, with no warning, no apologies, no nothing.

The sound of footsteps.

Finally.

You anticipate her coming and grab her shoulder as she rounds the corner.

She’s shocked and she drops the files she’s been holding, and you realize in embarrassment that it’s not the girl you’ve been waiting for. Your face flushes; apologies fall from your lips as you help her to pick up her things, and then your eyes meet.

And you realize that perhaps, she really was the one you’ve been waiting for.

The first encounter was hazy, embarrassing and absolutely out of your control. How you even managed to set up a second encounter you had no idea, but somehow it happened, and you were determined to show her your best traits, to be the most dashing you could be, to be the modern day knight in armour.

Somehow, your grand plans fell to pieces the next time you laid your eyes on her again.

You felt like every intelligent thought you possessed had flown out of your head, and that encounter too, passed by in some sort of daze.

You only remembered the little things.

The way she smelt. The way she tilted her head slightly to look up at you. She made you laugh without you even realizing it, or without even realizing why, but you knew that she seemed to enjoy your laughter, and you just wanted to see her smile.

She brought out your protective instincts, and you wanted to love her and cherish her, to protect her against all the evils of the world and make sure that no one would harm her, all in the first hour. You found yourself enjoying simple conversation more than you ever had in awhile, but perhaps the conversation wasn’t as interesting as listening to her talk, as watching the expressions that flitted past her face as she animatedly jumped from topic to topic.

You wanted to hold her in your arms, and keep her close to you, to listen to her heartbeat as you both fell asleep. You wanted to buy her flowers every day of the week and do a hundred and one other sappy, romantic things that you’d watched in the movies, if only she would be yours.

And then, as she turned around and walked to the bathroom, you realized she had the best ass as well, and that clinched the deal.

And then you realized, with trepidation, that you had fallen madly, head over heels in love.

Shit.