Chapter – 3 : I Finally Found You

Ayush Thukral

I have never been a true believer of fate and you would have known that for sure if you met me a month ago. Nevertheless, things changed for me and so did my beliefs. You know, life has its own way of unveiling things when the time is right. For me, it decided to slam my face with something, rather someone from my past just when I was getting all prepped up to move on. Oh! By the way, I am Ayush Thukral. You might remember me telling you how I met Neha Gupta (the love of my life) and then lost her forever. You might also remember how I was en route to meet my would-be bride for the first time? It was not more than about thirteen days back when that happened. And that was the day I started believing in destiny. As the girl to be my bride was none other than Neha Gupta herself.

The moment I realized it was Neha, a thousand memories and thoughts began colliding inside my mind and I can’t even begin to explain to you how it all felt. All I can tell is that, if the same situation were to be depicted within a movie, it would have been a melodramatic location with a romantic back score. But that does not happen in reality. Well, I guess this is life. It does not give you any warnings before a tragedy nor does it notify of your success beforehand.

In all those years that I’ve longed to meet Neha, I doubted if I would even recognize her after all. But there she was, standing right in front of me and all it took was a glance. Just one glance and I knew it was Neha, my Neha, the girl whom I have loved all my life.

The wedding was decided to take place within the next fifteen days and it was planned in so swiftly that I and Neha did not even get the proper time to interact. Neha however, managed to tell me last night that she has something to share and wants to meet me in person. I am getting married to the love of my life in two days and yet there is something that continues to trouble me. God knows how scared I am right now. I’m afraid that she loves someone else and after all these years I will lose her once again.

Neha Gupta

I’ve always been an introvert throughout my life and the worst thing about being an introvert is that you cannot express yourself even when you want to. Do you know what happens to the people who cannot express themselves? They always let go of the opportunity to achieve their desires and then stress the hell out of themselves regretting their loss. My story, however, was different from the universally excepted fate of an introvert. Life was kind to me and gave me the best even when I let go of it in the first place. Perhaps, that was the sole reason for me to have hoped for so long to meet Ayush once again. And my hopes did pay off after all.

I am Neha Gupta and you might remember me from the tale of the shy and timid girl who had to join a new school only to discover her one true love, Ayush Thukral. You might also remember how Ayush inspired to bring about the best in me without ever uttering a single word. And most of all, you might remember how I was preparing to let go of all my hopes on the day my groom-to-be was to visit my parents’ house. Well, it seems like fate had some other plans and this time it was planning on delivering the greatest of all treasures I could have ever asked for right into my arms.

I heard the sound of a car stopping just outside the house as Mom came rushing right into my room and said: “Hurry up beta, they’re here.” That sentence coming from Mom meant that the time to get over my past had come. I immediately withdrew myself from the stool in front of the dressing mirror and began reluctantly strolling down the stairs. If only had I known the true meaning of dilemma before that day. A million thoughts clashed inside my head with every step I took. My inner self-was being torn into two distinct pieces. One yelling at me rebelliously “What do you think you are doing? There’s still time. Go speak to Mom & Dad. They’ll understand. Go, search for Ayush and this time give in all you got.” while the other half would wisely say “You are doing the right thing. This is the least you can do for your parents. You can’t run from your responsibilities. The past is the past. You could not find Ayush in all these years, you will not find him now.”. Nevertheless, I decided to take in a deep breath and follow the later.

As I drew a few more steps to position myself just above the area where the guests were chattering, I caught a glimpse of something that I wasn’t expecting at all. It occurred to me that I had caught a glimpse of Ayush’s face (as it would occur to me in my thoughts), but then I subsided my excitement assuming that it was an illusion pertaining to the dilemma I was facing lately. Things, however, got clearer when I finally got off the stairs.

It appeared that I have not been hallucinating after all and it really was Ayush Thukral right in front of me after all those years. He looked exactly the same as in my thoughts and dreams. My joys knew no bounds when Mom introduced me to him as my groom-to-be. I wanted to shout at the top of my voice and spin around like an uncontrolled whirlwind but then I decided to act sober.

I and Ayush barely spoke to each other that day. I don’t know what it was but I am sure that something about him was definitely not right. He seemed rather lost in his own world. Was he not happy to get married to me? Was there someone else he loved? Or was it just my mind making that all up in the fear of losing him again? No matter whatever it was, it needed to be clarified and I needed to know what the man whom I have loved all my life, the man who was to be my groom thought of me. So, I called him up on one night and told him to meet me two days before our wedding.

Today, I will meet Ayush and confess to him all my feelings. But I am scared that he doesn’t feel the same for me, in fact, he never did.

And Here We Are

We met at a local café later that day. I was way too excited and reached there 15 minutes before time. However, by the time I reached the café, Neha was already waiting for me. I guess, she was excited as well. I had a plan of sharing my ‘secret love for her’ thing even before she could start but I could not utter a single word when she insisted on sharing her secret first. She initiated and everything around me came to a standstill. I could literally listen the thumping of my heart.

She initiated by sharing the memories from her first day at my old school and how she noticed me gazing at her. She then went on to say how she always wanted to speak to me and how I’d get away as soon as she came any closer. She told me how bad she felt when I had to leave the school and even told me of her longing to get a glimpse of me for so long. She even said that the happiest day for her was when I visited her house to finalize our wedding. She said a lot of things, the best one being her loving me from the first day at the school.

I was dumbstruck by her admittance. Nevertheless, after a few minutes I shared all of my stories with her and then we laughed. We laughed our lungs out on each other’s naïve. We then took a walk together, talking to each other and laughing and feeling blessed to have found one another. And finally, we promised to never again keep a secret from one another. We are getting married in two days and we will be spending the coziest honeymoon at Bali. I’ve heard a lot of it. Even Neha is excited about it. Well, I guess that is how life works based on the Law of Attraction, always giving us what we seek most.

You may lose the sight of them but you never ever lose someone you truly love.

If there is someone who you would like to speak to, then share your story with us in the comments.