Meet, greet, dine, talk and if the talk was pleasant enough, hold hands or if emotions betray you, kiss. That’s the template perfected by billions of couples the last million years for the first date. The date then moves on to be something more. But in most cases, it becomes something more and dies off. Only in some does it reach fruition.

This is not one of those happy stories. This is not a sad one either. All love ended has that one last moment. That one last spark where everything seemed right before everything went horribly wrong. But what if you could relive that just one more time? One more time, The last time.

These thoughts and more swirled through my head as I started on my long journey back home after meeting her.

This meeting was not planned. As everything ambiguous that happens in our life, it hits you like a stone slung from the sling of David himself. It’s been quite some time since that fateful and she had moved away, moved away to another city. Life went on with its ups and downs and Love never did seem near.

It was in one of those chat groups where this saga began/ended. ” Hey all, am in the city next week. Wanna meet up?” she pinged. After careful consideration and noting that there were at least two other interested parties, I pinged my affirmation. The chat then went on to the where to meet, and how to meet and my mind descended into madness.

“Why did I say yes? Why do I have to go?”, screamed the Brain. But maybe since the hand was closer to the heart than the brain, the heart signals went towards the fingertips faster and made me type the fateful yes.

I was confused. I knew it was over. It was not a dead phoenix to be resurrected, but a whale dead long enough that its stench could nauseate you miles away. But yet, there was something, that feeling in the stomach, those butterflies from the days past when just her Smile could send me into the rolling from one of the rainbows to another. But just like the explorers of yore, I never could find the end of the rainbow, I never could find her and I knew That’s how I lost her.

“Would this time be any different?”, I mused. ” She agreed to meet with me. What if the stars align and the king of the jungle has roared his acceptance of the joining of these two pathetic souls?”. “O shut up !” said the brain, ” You will be with her and two others. You are just a tick box. She’s come back into the city, not to you. Don’t go.”

But hey, The legs are closer to the heart than the brain. So on that fateful day, I found myself walking towards the cafe with all hope, all dread, and all despair. She was already in there it seems. All alone. The others were coming together. I all alone in my despair. I contemplated waiting. But the urge to see her alone was too great. Maybe it was her. Or the fact that I have not been alone with her in a very long time. But as I opened the cafe door and had my first glimpse of her, I understood why Adam must have wanted to eat that forbidden apple. She sat there my forbidden soul, sipping her tea and her hair waving just a bit due to the cooler placed near her.

Then my phone buzzed, The car broke and the others couldn’t arrive. My heart skipped a beat and wanted to run, hug and kiss her whilst the brain had in it’s mind already run miles away from this place. This conundrum turned my legs to mush and I just stood there.

I saw as her face turned glum as she saw the message. I also saw her face change. A smile, that smile which will send men running to the battlefields to fight for her love and hand. The smile that was a part of my dreams for many a year. I saw that smile when she looked at me.

She came near. Maybe she understood that my legs had turned mush and I can’t walk. Maybe it had turned to jelly. SHe came near and awkwardness stuck. A handshake was too formal. A hug and a kiss would rekindle lost emotions. What was the appropriate way of greeting a person whom you once loved to the earth and back? But my awkwardness saved me. I hit a nearby chair and fell down.

WIth the awkwardness out of the system, I was guided to our place and there we sat, two ex-lovers who had everything to talk about but nothing to say to each other. Maybe my mind was as blank as hers. Maybe if I overturn the bread basket and put it over my head it will be less awkward. As these thoughts drifted across my brain she said, “Hi”. Yes, I should have gone with that. Simple and easy. No, I had to construct brilliant what ifs including an asteroid strike and a nuclear missile crisis in my head whilst a simple Hi from my mouth would have been just fine. Stupid brain. The one organ nearer to you than the heart and you cant even control it. Hi she said and thus we began to speak.

I wish to say we spoke something interesting. Something brilliant. Something filled with love. I don’t remember any of that. What I remember is that we filled the space-time continuum with words and it went on for hours.

After hours of talking and longing, we finally reached the end. The moon had started to fade and the sun started to peak out from the clouds when our mouths and cheeks met and we said our goodbyes once more.

I was riding back and I smiled. What did we talk about? I honestly did not know. But I remembered one thing. We only spoke of the past. That’s what this was then. The past. It was then my mind came to ease. The butterflies in my stomach finally settled down. Everything felt right. I knew it was the last time. I stopped the car and laughed. This was like the last last time all over again.

But it will not go downhill from here. For it has ended before it went downhill. I had the best ending. I had the last time. One more time.