Serendipity

“IF this is a dream please do not wake me up,” Munya said to a woman he had not seen in over a decade. A woman he had been in love with for years, the woman whom he had promised himself he would marry someday, sadly someone beat him to it . . . “No intentions of waking you up,” Chiedza said playfully with both her hands raised up.

She wasn’t exactly sure how to handle herself around him. She didn’t want to appear to him as overly excited or too cold. Had it not been for the word that had been doing the rounds among their circle of friends about her not being in the list of his favourite persons, she would have been all over him like a bad rash.

“How have you been?’’ uttered Munya as he stretched out his arms and gave her a hug . . . as clumsy as the hug was, with all the bumping of each other’s heads and hands . . . it still felt good and familiar.

He had been her biggest “what if” and she had been his “the one that got away”. As they let go of the embrace something caught his eye, other than the absence of a ring on her finger. It was how strikingly beautiful she still was.

“Whoever coined the saying “it gets better with age, just like good wine must have had you in mind. You haven’t aged a single day Munya,” she said, while he puckishly laughed at that remark.

She had always had an effect on him. It somehow amused him how, after all the years she still had that effect on him.
Unwarily he pulled her close and embraced her again, her forehead touched his fourth or fifth right side rib, the same way it always had back then. He loved her height, it matched his just perfectly. They had a lot of catching up to do and doing so while they were standing in some crowded, congested corridor didn’t seem appropriate, so Munya suggested they find a quiet place so they could catch up over drinks.

On arrival Munya placed their order and as the waiter was walking away, he noticed how her big brown eyes were looking at him with great amusement “I’m knocking your socks off right now, aren’t I?” he quizzed.

“No,” denied Chiedza, despite the fact that her expressions said otherwise — she was smitten.
She was astonished at how he remembered what her favourite drink was and how exactly she liked it after all those years.
She smiled; almost embarrassed at the fact that he realised just how intrigued she was about him.

In a moment of silence, he realised with all the laughter, the excitement, the teasing and the smiles, there was a hint of sadness in her eyes. A dejection that tore at his heart, he wasn’t sure if asking and talking about it would have been appropriate, but then again not knowing and wondering would have been like torture for him.

They spoke for a while, with the sadness still creeping into him from time to time.
“I wish I could say, I hope you don’t mind my asking you what I’m about to ask. You appear sad and dejected,” he enquired with such tenderness and genuine concern.

On realising how teary her eyes had become, he held her hand gently but tightly.
He wasn’t aware of what she had been through, how unkind life had been to her and how many gallons of bitterness she had been forced to gorge.
All he strongly felt that instant was that everything was going to be okay from then on for both of them.

He wasn’t going to push her into sharing her story, unless she was willing to or until telling it hurt less.
“I don’t know what you have been through, I don’t know what life has thrown your way but I have experienced the very bitter side of it myself. All I know is that I found you again and I have no intentions of letting you go. To say I’m crazy about you doesn’t do my feelings any justice, I’m devoted to you,” he said.

The look in her teary eyes assured him that she was in it with him, but could he have been wrong? Seeing as she still had not said much . . .