A Love Story of Sorts - Part 3

Read Part 1 A Love Story of Sorts - Part 1

Read Part 2 A Love Story of Sorts - Part 2

A year had gone by. He couldn't stop himself from calling her.

"How are you?" he asked, his voice low, and she could picture the resigned shoulders sag just that little bit.

She stayed silent. Her heart ached and she could feel her soul rip at the seams.

"Why do you want to know?" she asked him instead, stalling.

There was no static but she imagined the flow of blood across the distance, the rush of it, and the silence more ominous as the seconds dragged. The pain was catching up. Her throat was beginning its game of constricted pain. She knew the tears would abruptly erupt, the pain in her eyes just about heating before there was no stopping the deluge.

 "Tell me." he insisted.

"Even if it's not what you want to hear?"

He stayed silent.

"I'm still hurting. A lot."

"We talked about this," he whispered.

"Yes." She was crying now. "You don't get to decide for how long this is going to hurt."

"I love you." He sounded contrite, piteous somehow.

"No." She sobbed. "This is not love."

She cut the line. The emptiness of the evening stretched across the sea, broken by the constant crashing of waves.

Another day was over. The relationship was over. It had been; for a long time perhaps.

(Three years later, she reconnected with him. (It was his birthday and she hadn’t forgotten) – a message led to a call and they were right where they left…He finally told her “I love you”, fought with her over the fact that she had seen other men in the three years they were apart, it was as if time had not moved at all.

This wasn’t over by any measure she realised. It was one of those forever things. She would always love him, despite not wanting to be with him. Love still breathed. Alive as ever. It was the relationship that had died…or maybe, there hadn’t been one in the first place.

She smiled. What a long way she had come! What a long way she had to go. With or without him.

© Sandhya Suri