I picked this one because some stories are easier to tell when there is a little music underneath them.
This started as a slightly ridiculous question: how do I tell someone how important she has become without writing the world's longest WhatsApp message?
Let's investigate ↓The way you care. The things you remember. The little reminders. The plans. The waiting. The missing.
The ridiculous details that would mean nothing to somebody else, but somehow become very easy for me to remember because they came from you.
And somewhere along the way, I realised I wasn't just enjoying the moments with you.
I was starting to care about the person who made the moments matter.
30 March 2000 adds up to 8. Since you believe in signs and I am always willing to investigate a suspicious coincidence, I decided the universe has authorised exactly eight reasons for me to fall for you.
Simple finding. Serious side effects.
Sometimes it is a joke. Sometimes it is one silly line. Sometimes it is just seeing your name appear on my screen.
I don't think you realise how often you can turn an ordinary moment into a better one without even trying.
This one is quieter, which is probably why I like it so much.
I don't always need an answer. Sometimes I just like talking to you. Sometimes I just like knowing you are there.
And yes, you once tried to object to my statement and said you don't give me comfort. Fine. The record still stands.
Which is rarer than it sounds.
I can be serious, silly, overthinking, excited, stubborn, ridiculously optimistic, or completely random.
You somehow make room for all of it.
There is a particular kind of ease in being with someone around whom you can simply be yourself.
You don't need a grand occasion to become memorable.
A quick coffee becomes a memory. A small plan becomes something to look forward to. A random conversation becomes something I replay later.
Even the tiniest details can stick because they came from you.
Romance has many languages. Apparently, one of ours is papad.
20 August. 10:00 PM. You simply sent:
Then, just in case the court required supporting documentation:
That is the kind of thing I mean when I say I notice you noticing me.
It is not flowers. It is not a dramatic speech. It is knowing that this idiot likes papad and remembering to bring it into the conversation.
I apparently had no intention of becoming this person again.
I admitted that I never expected to become a sixteen-year-old lover boy again. Never expected to want to wait for someone again.
And somehow I even admitted that getting scolded by that person might not be such a terrible outcome.
That was a fairly serious warning sign.
Some people care. You make me feel the care.
Sometimes concern comes as a sweet message. Sometimes it comes disguised as an instruction.
Either way, I notice what it means underneath.
And yes, there is something about being cared for by you that makes me feel unexpectedly special.
This is where the investigation stops being entirely theoretical.
Holding your hand. Waiting for you in the evening. Dropping you home. Going for drives. Being around you. Seeing your face.
Not because every future detail is already decided.
Because you started appearing naturally in the things I wanted next.
You gave me a fish.
That sounds like a small sentence. It has not behaved like one.
Now there is a little piece of your thoughtfulness swimming around my room every day.
And I genuinely love that. You left something from you in my everyday life without making a big deal out of it.
I don't know what my path ahead holds for me. But if I have to imagine it as of now, I don't want to imagine it without you.
I want to travel with you. See your face. Be around you. Annoy you. Make peace again. And loop this.
I want to call you Shorty. Taunt you funny and then hold you in my arms and laugh with you. Cry with you.
I want to see luxuries with you. And if you insist on some street shopping, I will try without nagging. (Maybe with a lot of sweat.)
I want to walk with you. Run with you. Play music for you. Discover places with you. Make completely ordinary days unnecessarily memorable.
I want the laughs, the tears, the stupid conversations, the plans that work and the plans that turn into stories.
I want to be around you enough to know the little things nobody else notices. And I want you to know that I will notice them.
I don't know what every chapter ahead looks like. But if I have to imagine it today, I don't want to imagine it without you.
The birthday gave me eight. The chats gave me hundreds.
I don't fall for one spectacular thing about you.
I fall for the accumulation of you.
An Enterprise Architect has accidentally become a web designer for one very important stakeholder. This is not a precedent I intend to set for the banking sector.
More than I can fit into eight reasons.
More than I can fit into a website.
More than I probably manage to say properly.
I notice you.
I notice the little things.
And I care about them because I care about you.
No formal response required. But if this made you smile even a little, I would like some evidence that my highly sophisticated investigation produced a result.