The flashback
My heart was pounding at the thought of meeting Dev again. Last time we met was a decade ago. Dev and I had been in a relationship for almost seven years, since our college days, in Bangalore. Those were the best times of my life. Things however changed when Dev started his MBA. He got infatuated with one of his classmates and totally messed up our relationship.
I wanted to die when we broke up. What hurt more was that, in him, I also lost my best friend. But life goes on and I learned to move on.
Bridging a decade
Fast forward ten years and I am now happily married and settled in Mumbai. Over the years, Dev and I had kept in touch on Facebook but seldom spoke.
Of late, we had started chatting on Whatsapp. I still remember the first time he’d messaged me. It was late one evening while I was still at work in the middle of a crazy month end! Dev had lost his brother in a horrific road accident and had been going through one of the lowest phases of his life.
I was surprised to realise we still had that connection. That day I wanted to drop everything and just go and hug him. Since then, we chatted off and on and it felt good. After a lot of ‘should we?..should we not?’ we decided to meet and Dev flew down to Mumbai.
Love in the air
It was New Year’s Eve and there was a slight nip in the air. The mood all around was that of hope, celebration and joy. We met at his office guest house. I did feel a bit uncomfortable at the prospect of meeting him alone in a room but the excitement to meet him overcame everything I had in mind.
Dev opened the door and after a couple of awkward moments, we held each other in the longest, tightest, warmest hug! Neither of us spoke a word but it felt like we had said it all.
The moment
We spent the next three hours catching up on each other’s lives. I realised, that especially over the last few months, I had finally buried all the bitterness and hurt and cherished us being friends again.
Through the evening we laughed, chatted, hugged, flirted and even kissed. Closer to midnight, after a couple of drinks, Dev pulled me close, held my hand and softly said, ‘You know, it’s difficult to keep off you!’ I would be lying if I said I felt differently! But I also knew one thing for sure – I did not want to jeopardize everything I had in my life now. A moment of reckless passion could spoil it all.
New beginnings
I told Dev exactly how I felt and he seemed to understand. He smiled at me with his warm, gentle eyes. We realised we had both matured with time and had our heads in place, thankfully!
Dev suggested we join in the New Year celebrations happening at the club across the road.
‘Cheers to a new year and new beginnings’ said Dev. ‘Cheers to our friendship,’ I said with a big, happy smile. We hugged each other tight and kissed one last time before stepping out. Life felt good.
*Names changes
*Persons in the picture are models
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