Dear Stranger,

It's valentines day.

All these years this day has arrived sneakily and passed by anonymously with no event of particular note.

For some reason, this feels different.

Maybe it's my new job as a digital branding exec that makes me abreast of the trending events. Or maybe it's the numerous reels on my feed and showoff stories on my socials.

But perhaps, it's you.

This valentines, I feel a bubbling anticipation in me that I have felt only once before. Back when the universe decided to slap me in the face with a caffeinated dose of adolescent first love. Well, that's a core memory to sour the mood.

I used to be so awkward and anxious all the time back then. I mean, I still am.. but at least I don't give a fuck anymore of "what will people say".

With time... you are forced to grow up. You fall in love. Your hearts shatter to million fragments. And each time you stare blankly at the aftermath, picking up the pieces, you die a little more. You learn to see the patterns in people. You learn to see through the fake smiles, the false pretenses, the easy familiarity. And you build a wall. A tall strong wall without end, obscuring your heart from getting broken again. Is that escapism? Perhaps. But better than that pain again, right?

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

And then, someday, a stranger comes along. Of all the things, it's a blind dates. It was supposed to be just another failed trial. I mean, you have been on dates before. You know how this goes.

And yet.

You don't see the sands of time slipping you by in the moment you spend with her. Somehow that moment turns out to be an hour and half long. The date ends. But you are left confused, curious and yearning for more.

'Where did the time go?

What is it about her?

You never talk this much, so what was it back then??' You murmur to yourself.

After all this time of carrying around a void inside you. Finally.

Finally, you feel something.

You don't know what it is yet.

How could you? It's been too long.

So you talk. You meet. You explore that feeling. And somehow, every time you hear her voice. You find yourself just that bit closer to her than the starting point.

'What is this? This.. magnetism.'

It was a chance encounter that you met, and yet, somehow, you two are drawn towards each other, hopelessly, unceasingly.

And then. One day.

Your lips meet.

Gravity frees you.

It grows inside you. In the numb void where your heart used to be, a precious, precious spark. Blooming.. flowering.. into a new heart. Tethered, connected to another, beating across the city from you. Far, but still, right there.

'What is this.. sensation? What is this foreign expression on my face? Why are my lips stretched just so...

Ah,

I remember...

It's a smile. '

'This is dangerous' you think. 'She has more power over me than I anticipated' You panic.

"Hey, you okay?" You hear that magnetic voice again, reeling you back to the present.

You see her just waiting for you there, smiling a bit mischievously because of that suddenly stolen kiss. You look into those radiantly brown eyes and all your worries melt away.

'Fuck it' you surrender,

'let's fall together then'..