"I love you."
I stepped away from my seat, circling the table slowly - my heart pounding with every step. Then, just like I had played it in my head a hundred times, I dropped to one knee. The velvet box, which had lived quietly in my pocket all evening, now rested in my open hand.
Her eyes widened. She looked almost frozen, lips parted as if forming a word she couldn't quite say.
"The time I've spent with you - those days felt like dreams I never wanted to wake up from. And every moment we're apart? That's when it turns into a nightmare. So Mira..." I paused, my voice trembling just a little, "I want to spend all my todays and tomorrows with you. Will you marry me?"
I had written a long, poetic speech for this moment. Rehearsed it in the mirror, shaved it down, rewrote it again. But in that moment, all I could do was speak from my cracked, overwhelmed heart.
Mira raised both hands to her mouth, her eyes wide - glassy. A single tear escaped the corner of her eye and slid silently down her cheek.
Then she whispered - barely audible - "Excuse me."
And before I could move, before I could even blink, she stood up and rushed toward the bathroom.
Leaving me there, still on one knee. Still holding the ring.
For a few seconds, I just stared after her. Frozen in disbelief. Around me, a couple heads had turned. No one said anything, but I could feel the weight of their stares, heavy and awkward.
"Did I… just get rejected?" I muttered under my breath, trying to make sense of what had just happened.
I slowly pushed myself up from the floor, dusted off my jeans, and slid the ring box back into my pocket. My throat was dry. I reached for the glass of water on the table and took a long sip - trying to wash down the sting of what had just unfolded.
I wasn't just waiting. Every second that ticked by felt like it was pressing down on my chest. It wasn't silence - it was something heavier.
Thoughts spiraled. Regret. Doubt.
Was it too soon? Too much?
Did my selfish rush to make her mine push her away?
The restaurant noise around me blurred into the background, like a song I didn't want to hear.
Then I saw her. Mira.
She was walking back slowly, and as our eyes met, I caught the traces she thought she had wiped away - redness clinging to her eyes, the shimmer of something that had already fallen.
She sat down without saying a word for a moment. And then finally, she looked at me.
"Sorry…" Her voice cracked gently, but she caught it mid-break. "But can we go back?"
I was at a loss for words.
She had already stepped out of the restaurant, her pace quick and steady - like she needed to escape the weight of the moment. I stood up slowly, my eyes lingering on the untouched food resting on the table.
"I should've at least waited for her to try the house special..." I murmured to no one.
The drive back was smothered in silence. Not the peaceful kind. This silence had sharp edges - it echoed everything we weren't saying.
I gripped the steering wheel tighter, trying to focus on the road, trying not to replay the scene in my head.
I just wanted to get her home… and let this night - this night I had imagined for months - end.
When we finally pulled up outside her place, she reached for the door handle and paused.
"Thank you… for the night."
Her voice was soft. Distant.
Then she stepped out, swallowed by the dark. I couldn't see her face clearly, and maybe she didn't want me to.
She walked up the path without looking back.
And just like that, she disappeared behind the door.
"Hey, Romio! How'd the proposal go?"
Liam's voice floated in from the kitchen as I stepped into the flat. Probably trying out one of those recipes his mom scribbled down for him.
"I'm surprised to see you bac - "
He walked out mid-sentence, but froze when he saw my face. No more words. Just a quiet pause. He hung up his apron without another glance.
"Screw this cooking. Abhi, let's go out."
No questions. No judgment. Just him reading me like an open book. He plucked the keys from my hand.
"Drinks on me."
***
My head felt like it was stuffed with bricks.
I tried to sit up, but something heavy pinned down my chest - Liam's leg.
And then I noticed where I was. His room.
Walls plastered with posters of footballers like some teenage fanboy shrine.
"How the hell did I end up here?"
Everything after those vodka shots was just a blur.
"Shit. This hangover is killing me," I muttered. I hated drinking like that - it never ended well for me.
"Where's my phone?" I scanned the room until I spotted it. Under Liam's head.
"Damn it, Liam. That's not your pillow."
Still… I owed him. No jokes, no 'I told you so,' just support. Quiet and constant.
I grabbed my phone and reflexively checked my notifications.
Her name lit up the screen.
A message: "Can we meet, at 3? The café near my home."
But that wasn't what made my heart stop.
I scrolled up - and there it was.
A trail of messages that hit like a punch to the gut:
|Please... you wouldn't leave me, right?
|I can't dream to live without you. It feels suffocating just thinking about it.
|Please forgive me... I rushed things...
"F**k this!"
The words slipped out louder than I intended.
"What? What happened?"
Liam jolted up, startled, rubbing sleep from his eyes.
"Bro, don't scare me like that."
"Sorry, but did you see me texting on my phone last night?" well, what I wrote is already read by her so this Q&A will be of no help to me.
"Shit I am hopeless." Liam Looked at me confused.
"Hey, calm down!" he got up from the bed came close to me. "What happened? why are you pulling your hair this early in the morning?"
"I wrote her god knows what last night after I was drunk." I sat there with my head drop down clueless on what to do after showing my hopeless side to her.
"Just tell her it was me who wrote from your phone." Liam and his silly ideas.
"Well, what done is done let's just meet her for now." The stupid me last night maybe crazy but still I am relived he didn't write anything wrong.
"The time is 12 right now, we slept like log." I need to first clear my head with a shower.
I am already at a loss of how I will clear the mess I have caused.