Author: Miss L

About the author: I write to find or lose myself.

Story title: The One That Got Away…

About the story: I almost gave up on a once-in-a-lifetime type of love and this is how I imagine life would have turned out if I was the boy.

I had known she was my soul mate the moment I saw her. She looked tired, but the smile that cut her face into two held.‘Long day?’ I asked, handing her a crisp $10 note. Her skin brushed against mine as she took the bill out of my hand, I expected to feel a surge of current from the contact.

‘Does it show?’, her voice was smooth, velvety, I wanted her to say my name. I watched as she rang up my order. I let my eyes follow the arch of her neck, the soft curve of her chest and her elegant movements, the way her fingers only lightly brushed the keyboard.

She placed my order on the counter and smiled in dismissal. I couldn’t come up with anything else to delay my departure so I left, with a lump in my throat.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

‘Babe,’ my wife’s voice brings me back to reality, ‘are you done with that?’ I haven’t touched my dinner.

‘Yes, that was lovely. I’m going to catch up on some work.’ I say, kissing her on the cheek before heading for my makeshift office, I need the space.

My hands shake as I pour myself 2 shots of vodka. I could not have expected that seeing Dadiso again would have had this effect on me, 12 years later. She looked older but just as elegant in a red coat and black pumps.

She had never been the prettiest in any room, but I had loved her more than I had loved any other woman, even my wife, who was much more beautiful.

That afternoon, I recognized her first. ‘Dadiso!’ I exclaimed. Already feeling the pull she always had on me.

She looked up from her phone, tilted her head and looked me dead in the eyes. ‘Ben.’ It sounded like an accusation.

I remained silent for a while, not in the essence of not knowing what to say. On the contrary, we both knew exactly what to say. I could see her chest moving as she breathed, my breath instinctively synchronized with hers, like a soft, mellow Shostakovich waltz.

“I missed you”, I could not stop the words from coming out of my mouth. I had resigned to faith to do my part and reveal to her all the things I could not dare to tell her that afternoon when I let her walk away from me.