Close Enough

“You haven’t been yourself lately.”

“I know.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know.”

“Oh, that you don’t know?”

“It’s stupid.”

“Is it? Try me.”

“I guess I’m scared.”

“Scared of what?”

“Meeting you…?”

I clenched my teeth. I didn’t realize how it sounded before I hit send.

“Sorry, that sounds messed up.”

“Very messed up, but I get it. I’m not a catfish, I promise. Haha.”

“I’m so relieved,” I texted back with a sigh.

Long-distance relationships can be…complicated. Sometimes, they work out, and sometimes, they do not. Sometimes, they stick, and sometimes, you grow apart and end things without either one realizing it. It worked out for us. It stuck. We made it to the next level – meeting each other in person, which only happened on the same day as my family reunion.

“This is terrifying.”

“How come you are more scared than I am? I’m the one who has to break apart a reunion.”

“They are going to love you.”

“If you’re so confident, then why are you worried?”

“I’m pretty sure they hate my guts. Also, I haven’t spoken to them in over a year and skipped the last two get-togethers.”

“No wonder they hate your guts.”

“Yeah. Shut up.”

Alright, I’ll admit I’m a bit of a hypocrite.

“It’s going to be fine.”

I bit my lip. “Are you sure?”

“Positive. And if I say it goes, it goes. Will you come to pick me up from the airport?”

I chuckled before sending the reply.

“Yeah, I’ll be there. At what time does the plane depart?”

“Uh…6:30?”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

“You hate waking up early.”

“I don’t think I’ll even have time to go to sleep.”

“Good luck.”

“Thanks. I’ll text you tomorrow. Facetime tonight?”

“You got it! I love you.”

“I love you too.”

We met at an online event on a live stream. The viewers were organized into groups for a test, and we both ended up in the same one. We ended up scoring the highest and won the whole thing. It was pretty thrilling. There was also a prize, but, as one month passed and no contact came through, we realized we were scammed. We decided to keep in touch and exchanged phone numbers before being logged out. We continued to talk and quickly became really good friends. Now, we have moved past that. Our two-year anniversary is coming up tomorrow. The day we’re supposed to attend my family reunion. I’m not worried. I’m positive they’ll like her. I mean, what’s there not to like? She’s the prettiest, smartest, most amazing girl I’ve ever met. She’s kind and she also has an obsession with baby animals. She is the messiest human being the world has let me see. She always manages to lose something because she doesn’t remember where she last put it. She’s incredibly clumsy. “That’s why I only own plastic tableware,” she once told me. She has a part-time job as a barista in the inner city and spends the rest of her free time reading books and gaming. Well, mostly gaming. We’ve played lots of matches together and she’s always beaten me. We have also won a couple of tournaments together.

“What’s up?”

“Just finished my shift. We had a milk shortage and everyone had something to say about it.”

“Man. That sounds like a rough day.”

“Ah, it’s fine. As long as it doesn’t affect my paycheck, they can complain as much as they want. Facetime in about an hour?”

“Sure. See you!”

I couldn’t help but giggle. She dealt with things like these almost every day and always told me about each in great detail. I asked her more than once why she doesn’t just switch workplaces but she denied it by saying that other workplaces don’t have that much drama going on. Whatever floats her boat, I guess. We talked for almost five hours that night from which over two were spent on her choosing her clothes for the trip. I asked her why she needed so long to decide and she told me I whined too much. Eventually, we both settled on a few pairs of pants and lots of sweaters because here autumn is pretty chilly. We continued talking for the next hour or so and wrapped it up with a movie we both thought was bad before going to bed.

“You’re such a party pooper.”

“It’s almost 3 am for me!”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“I’m tired.”

“Well, I’m not.”

“Ugh, good night! I love you.”

“Good night, sleepyhead.”

I scoffed and put my phone on the nightstand. I fell asleep quickly that night. In the morning, I woke up to a dozen of messages.

“I’ve never felt so popular.”

“Good morning to you, too. I’m about to take off, so my phone will be shut down for the next couple of hours.”

“Did the check-in go well?”

“Aside from the fact that they didn’t recognize my ID picture again…everything went great!”

“Ah, okay. Was it that bad of a picture?”

“I will hang up on you.”

 “Fine, sorry. Have a safe flight.”

“Thanks. See you soon, heh, get it.”

“Hilarious. Call me when you land. Bye.”

Today was going to be a great day.

The love of my life was finally coming to visit. I was freaking out, to say the least. I’m not scared of meeting her; at least, not in the way she thinks. I am not worried I won’t like her, fair enough it’s quite the opposite. I know I’ll like her; I just hope she’ll like me back. Talking through a web camera is something but meeting face-to-face is something else, and it’s scary because I won’t have my computer screen to hide behind when something goes wrong. I don’t consider myself an introvert, but meeting people in the real world is a huge deal for me. I just want everything to work out without any inconveniences. There’s also my family, with whom I haven’t spoken in long enough for them to be mad about it. I hope they won’t take it out on her and drag her into this mess – something my family would rather often do. This is between me and them, although I hate the thought of that. I just hope the real deal lives up to the ‘behind the screens.’

Those hours were excruciating. I sat right next to my phone for an hour and a bit until I figured out it was going to take me about another hour to arrive at the airport myself so I took a few things and headed out. Of course, there was traffic. Looks like everybody was traveling by plane this weekend. I slammed my hands on the steering wheel.

“This is unbelievable!” I groaned. No car had moved a single inch for the past thirty minutes and I had been stuck in this hell for well over an hour. To make matters worse, I was running out of songs to play. I could see that other people were frustrated too – I could also hear it, as many decided to express their feelings through honks and a marvelous choice of words shouted from the window. Soon it started to seem like, the longer I faced the endless traffic wagon ahead of me, the longer it seemed to be getting; just like being in a desert searching for an oasis. By that point I checked my phone obsessively, making sure I was still in the green zone and no ”I arrived, where are you?” text from my girlfriend popped up on my screen. In my sudden despair, I looked up through the windshield and I saw the sky had started to turn grey.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” As soon as my brain fully interpreted the image, it started downpouring. I was completely stuck in between traffic, with no way to go back or forth whatsoever, and it was now raining. Great. I scoffed and turned off the car. I decided I wasn’t going to make my situation even more miserable by running out of gas in the middle of the highway. I looked at my phone again; in about forty minutes I was supposed to be in the airport at “Arrivals” to pick up my girlfriend…which was an insanely short amount of time starting now. On a regular day, the rest of the way I had to drive would’ve taken me yet over that. I felt hopeless. I genuinely didn’t know what to do. I let out a heavy sigh and rewound the playlist from the beginning.

This was turning into the worst day ever, and it had barely even begun.

About half an hour later, the congestion cleared up and everybody was back on their way. The downpour had also calmed down a bit. The rest of the way was problem-free, even though I drove like a maniac the remaining half of it; I have no idea how I didn’t get either a speeding ticket or my license taken away. When I arrived at the airport, there was a full ongoing fight in the parking lot. The parking spaces were each occupied within seconds like we were all in a massive shopping center. I decided to go the extra mile and leave my car in a small yet still safe parking lot close to the airport itself. I’d much rather pay a couple of bucks than maybe have my car totaled in a war started over parking lots. I sprinted back to the entrance on foot, where people were still fighting about who gets to leave their car where and why, and I squeezed in through the crowd to see the arriving flights on the panel. In a terrible turn of events, some actual giants forced their way in front of me so now I couldn’t even see in which direction I was heading. The only logical solution was to get out from the crowd on either side that was available. After a few minutes of pure struggle, I managed to get out to another side of the airport. Not knowing the place very well, and being surrounded by people left and right, I could say I was a bit disoriented. Quite frankly, I didn’t know where in the world I was. I took my phone out and decided on one thing.

“I am lost.”

“What do you mean “you’re lost?”

“Okay, so you’ve landed. Great. This was the most hectic journey I have taken in my life. Where are you?”

“At my gate.”

“Which is where?”

“I am behind you, stupid.”

As soon as I read the message, I turned around and saw a grumpy girl with a very concerned expression standing a few meters before me. My heart fluttered – she looked so much prettier in reality, although I doubt that was her main aim then. I sprinted towards her with excitement, but she raised her hand and stopped me.

“Don’t hug me. You’re wet.”

“Ah…” I forgot I had been walking through the building in drenched clothes all that time.

“What in the world happened?”

“It’s raining.”

“Don’t you have an umbrella?”

“It was sunny when I left the house.”

“Typical.” She rolled her eyes.

“It’s great finally meeting you.”

“Hm, the feeling is mutual.”

She looked me up and down like I was some sort of exposition with a puzzled look. I took her suitcase and we started walking back towards the entrance. I decided to let her think that wearing shorts and tennis shoes in the middle of a pouring autumn day was a choice.

“This is going to sound weird.”

“I like weird.”

She smiled. “I’m happy you aren’t a catfish after all.”

My eyebrows dropped. “We facetimed, like, every day.”

“When did you get the “Aquaman” clothes? Are they new?”

“Imagine my delight knowing you didn’t lose your sarcasm on the way.”

“Sarcasm is my language, babe. Where’s your car?”

I clenched my teeth. “About that…”

“We were so close to ending this on a positive note.”

“Close enough,” I joked, but the reaction I was met with made me rethink my response.

She let out a heavy breath. “You’re lucky I’d cross an ocean for you because I just did and it seems like I will have to do it again.”

And, surprisingly, it wasn’t half as bad as I thought it would be. Nothing had changed – we were still the same people who decided to go out and made it into a two-year relationship. We ran through the pouring toward my car and we drove back to my place as we were both tired. We decided we were going to have a day out the following morning, provided the traffic and the rain would leave with today.

People say you can’t uncover much about a person through the lens of a camera or a screen. I believe that was somewhat untrue for us. Having only met her 730 days ago, I found out she is an awesome person with a ton of qualities and a marvelous ton of imperfections. She is incredibly impulsive, but also incredibly ambitious and determined. She is brutally honest, so, if she doesn’t like something or feel a certain way, she won’t wait to make that come to light. She is full of hopes and dreams other people could only dream to wish for. I am so lucky to be able to call a person like that mine, and I will gladly be hers.

Today turned out to be a good day after all. Now, if only my family would oblige, tomorrow would be even better, but tomorrow is still several hours away. I think that is good enough for now.