Three months and twenty-seven days ago at 4:15am I sat in the rain on a damp metal bench waiting for the train to come in. Google maps seems like such a simple system but it always ends up screwing me over in terms of directions so I had arrived a full hour before my train would get there. 45 minutes before he would arrive. I’d barely slept any the night before, my jitters were so bad, so maybe it was good I’d gotten up for that early walk. St. Louis is so calm and peaceful in the morning, the opposite of how I was feeling with my quick heart beat and sweaty palms.
Finally arriving at Lambert Airport I nervously followed signs to Baggage Claim, still not quite believing he would be there. I instantly recognized him from the back of his dark, curly head and couldn’t stop smiling. He looked as nervous as I felt when he spotted me and slowly starting walking towards me. I kept walking but it didn’t feel like I was getting any closer so I ran and threw myself into his arms, holding on tight just to make sure he was real. That he was actually there.
Since that moment I haven’t stopped holding on. There’s rarely at time when he is more than arm’s length away from me. People still ask me if it’s weird or if it’s what I expected. The answer to both is no. It feels exactly like it was meant to be. It’s not perfect of course. He hates how I wander off in the middle of conversations and I hate how he cuts me off when I seem uninterested. But then I love how for the first time in my life there’s someone who holds doors open for me and insists on carrying the heavy boxes and he loves having someone who can sort out his tangled trains of thought.
This is why at the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows midnight premiere when he got down on one knee between the Cyclone and Gauntlet arcade games and asked me to marry him, there was no hesitation. I had already known for a long time that he is the man I want to spend the rest of my life with. No date has been set as of yet. We’re going to wait until I finish school, which is about 2 years from now, and see how it goes from there.
The best news in all of this is that Sab isn’t going back to Vegas. My parents have generously allowed him to stay until December. While I will move into my new apartment Friday and start going to school 100 miles away from him, it’s still infinitely better than the thousands of miles that separated us before. It will be hard but hopefully come Spring we’ll be able to close the distance between us for good. Until then, just having him in the same time zone will be comfort enough.
P.S. – I don’t know what I would have done without you this summer Sab. Having you so close to me makes me wonder how we ever survived before. I’m so glad you came and even happier that you aren’t leaving. I know the next few months will be hard and I will miss you so much but know that I am always here for you no matter what. <3
