Jakarta, Indonesia
September 2023
I checked my phone again.
ARRIVED.
The word had been staring back at me for the past three minutes.
His flight from New Delhi had landed.
I looked up at the arrival gate.
People were coming out one after another. A little boy ran into his father's arms. A young woman waved excitedly at someone in the crowd. A family stood holding flowers and balloons.
Everyone seemed to know exactly who they were waiting for.
I wasn't so sure about myself.
I tightened my grip around my phone.
I was forty-four years old.
Old enough to know better.
Old enough to believe I wouldn't get nervous over a man I'd never met.
Yet here I was, standing at an international airport with my heart pounding like a teenager about to meet her first crush.
It was ridiculous.
And terrifying.
Because in the next few minutes, I would finally meet a man I had known for a year.
A man whose voice I could recognize instantly.
A man whose laugh I had heard hundreds of times.
A man who knew how I looked when I was happy, exhausted, sick, annoyed, or trying not to cry.
I knew what his office looked like.
I knew what his favorite mug looked like.
I knew he preferred riding his Royal Enfield over driving his car.
I knew he drank chai every evening.
I knew the way his eyes crinkled whenever he laughed.
I knew so much about him.
And yet, I had never stood in the same room with him.
I looked at the arrival gate again.
No sign of him.
I exhaled slowly.
One year.
It had taken us an entire year to get here.
One year of messages.
Voice notes.
Video calls.
Cancelled plans
A dozen unexpected obstacles and moments that made us wonder whether the universe simply didn't want us to meet.
And somehow, despite everything, we were still here.
I smiled to myself.
It was strange, really.
Because none of this was supposed to happen.
I wasn't looking for love.
Neither was he.
And if someone had told me a year ago that I would be standing at an airport waiting for a man from New Delhi, I would have laughed.
It all started with something so small.
A comment.
A reply.
A stranger from seven thousand kilometers away.
VOUS LISEZ
Seven Thousand Kilometers
Roman d'amourOne comment changed everything. She never expected a stranger from New Delhi to become the person she looked for every day. He never imagined that a woman living seven thousand kilometers away would understand him in ways no one else did. They had e...
