10 o’clock in the evening. I was laying in my bed and stared at the white ceiling. My window was slightly open and a soft, refreshing wind blew into my room. My gaze wandered to the picture frame that stood next to me on the bedside table. It showed a smiling girl, with wild red curls and freckles dancing on her nose. It was a beautiful photo taken on a summer day.
With my thumb I gently ran over the glass. Now there weren’t even 24 hours left till I would get into my car and pick her up from the airport. At that thought thousands of butterflies appeared in my stomach. Finally I would be able to hold her in my arms.
Our story was a little different, a little more complicated than the love stories of my friends. I could still remember the day she and I met. It had been on Twitter, quite standard for the extraordinary story of our love. I hadn’t been in a very good mood that day, my work had stressed me out and I had had a fight with my boyfriend.
I was scrolling through Twitter when suddenly a post from her appeared on my time line. It was the photo that was now framed and standing next to my bed. Fascinated by her beauty I went to her profile. With every post I read, I felt the desire to send her a message, to get to know her. After a while I gathered all my courage and finally send her a message. A simple hi. My heart was beating up to my neck when I saw the little 1, which meant that I had received a new message.
With trembling hands I had opened the message, I didn’t even know why I was so excited. Once I took a deep breath and then opened my eyes. The message had been an equally simple hello. But this Hello was the beginning of something wonderful, something magical, something I had never dared to dream of in my whole life.
Days became weeks and weeks became months. We texted each other every day, for hours, as far away as the time difference allowed. She lived in the USA, I live here in Germany. 6 hours lay between us and a damn big ocean.
In the beginning this friendship between us was like any other friendship. We talked about music, hobbies, our interests and which countries we wanted to visit at some point. But I soon realized that there was more to it than just friendship. I put the feelings aside because I was being totally aware of how unhappy I was in my relationship.
My thoughts were constantly revolving around this wonderful woman who lived too far away. She was my anchor, always there for me when I needed someone to talk to. Her smile gave me a lot of strength.
My phone rang and tore me out of my thoughts. Video call from my girl. “Baby. Are you on your way to the airport?” I asked and smiled softly at her. “I’m already at the airport, boarding starts in an hour, just wanted to check in. I can’t wait to finally see you.” Her smile was unbelievably beautiful on her, it was exactly the smile I had fallen in love with so much. “Hey angel, what are you thinking about?” I shook my head quickly. “Just about how much I love you.” My girlfriend blushed slightly. “You are so sweet. I love you too. Oh I gotta go, the plane’s waiting for me. I’ll see you then.” I nodded. “Have a safe flight my little potato chip.” I whispered.
After we hung up, I lay back down on my bed. Yes, a friendship had slowly grown into love. “Are you happy?“ With this question she had completely thrown me off track. “If I’m happy? Why do you ask?” Of course I had answered with a counter-question, too afraid to reveal my feelings. She had looked at me seriously and I noticed immediately that she would love to crawl through the screen of her computer to me.
Nervously I began to chew on my lower lip, trying to hold back my tears. “He didn’t come home again.” My friend said knowingly, I nodded. It had happened way too often that my boyfriend did not come home for several days and did not tell me where he was or with whom he was going out. “Why do you stay with him if he destroys you so?” I had asked myself that question too many times, and still I had no answer. It wasn’t love, anyway. Maybe just the fear of daring to do something new, of breaking out of old patterns.
I sighed slightly at the thought and turned on my side. It had taken me far too long to admit my feelings towards her. But one day the time had come. My boyfriend and I had had a violent argument, which finally led to me throwing him out of the apartment. I really didn’t care what happened to him, I just couldn’t see him anymore.
She had called me on Skype that night. I was still pretty upset about the fight in the morning. Of course, she immediately noticed that something was wrong. “We broke up. I just couldn’t take it anymore and besides that, I love someone else anyway.” Her blue eyes flashed questioningly. “I…well, this may sound crazy and stupid, but I’m totally in love with you. I’ve never felt this way before, not in my whole life.” The words just came out of my mouth. And her look became softer and softer and you could see in her eyes how happy she was in that moment. “Baby, I love you too. You have no idea how happy I am right now.”
That was the start of our relationship. We were dating for 1 year now. We talked to each other every day, texted a lot and shared our worries and fears. Tomorrow we would see each other for the first time, in the real world, not just through a stupid screen. My last thought before falling asleep was like every night, my girl, who was on a plane on her way to me.
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I woke up before my alarm clock rang. To be honest, I hadn’t really been able to sleep that night. I had been too excited. I quickly got up, went to the bathroom and got ready. A quick look at my watch told me that I had about three hours left before I had to be at the airport. So I quickly made myself something to eat, put on a jacket and then headed for my car.
On the way to the airport I bought a bouquet of summer flowers, hoping she would be happy about it. In the meantime my excitement had reached its peak. I just couldn’t believe that we had realized all the things we had always dreamed up.
Exit International Airport Frankfurt. I had arrived at my destination. After getting a parking ticket and parking my car, I took a deep breath.
There was the flight information, the first one on the display board. Excited I made my way to the arrivals section. With a whole lot of other people I waited in front of a barrier. Nervously I bit my lip and bounced from one leg to the other.
Suddenly the door swung open, and little by little passengers came through the door. Then I saw her. Her red hair was tied in a bun, she was wearing grey sweatpants and an oversized white shirt, and she had placed her sunglasses on her head. She looked even more beautiful than in the photos or on my computer screen. She looked up and saw me immediately. A dazzling smile formed on her lips as she walked quickly towards me.
And then her arms were already wrapped around me. Her scent clouded my senses, a wonderful flowery scent. “Angel I can’t believe it, I…” Smiling, she stroked my cheek.
“You… you are here… I…” Before I could finish my sentence I felt her lips on mine. It was an incredible feeling, like I was on a drug. My heart was beating up to my neck. This in that moment was the most beautiful feeling I had ever felt.
Without realizing it, we both started to cry. We held each other tightly in our arms and could not believe that this moment was not a dream.
From that day on the most beautiful part of my life began. We visited each other from time to time, went on vacation together and experienced many things together. One of the most beautiful days was when we finally moved together, we had decided to move to Ireland together, we just loved the landscape there.
And then came the day when she proposed to me, right in the middle of Seoul on one of our countless trips. I will never forget that. And I will always remember that you had to break away from things that destroy you to find happiness.
This is what my story would look like in a perfect uncomplicated world. But life is not perfect and not uncomplicated or simple. But that’s what makes life so interesting, you never know who you meet or what fate has planned for you. This is what makes life so exciting and wonderful.