The cherry blossoms dressed the bare winter branches
and it was finally warm enough to walk around without a heavy coat.
The café on the corner that I sat at was bustling,
greeting tired customers on a Saturday morning.
I continued to aimlessly scroll through my browser,
closing out tabs of potential apartments that were out of budget.
The coffee burned my tongue as I dazed into space,
replaying your words from last week over again
.
“Let’s move in together.”
You nervously and quietly said those words during dinner,
leftover takeout from lunch.
Nervously playing with the strings on your hoodie,
you didn’t look up from your plate of fried rice.
I felt glued to my chair, my spoon full of egg soup halting in mid-air.
Time passed slowly as I struggled to form my words and thoughts,
to which you seemed to misunderstand as rejection.
You quickly tried to erase the silence by following up with a lighter tone,
still not looking up from your plate.
“I…I mean. I…It doesn’t. I…I didn’t mean it to be like, now, I guess.
It would just be nice…to see you every day.”
A blush was forming in your cheeks as you took a deep breath.
Barely a whisper, but somewhat audible enough for me to hear,
you exhaled the words that seemed to have been dancing on your mind.
“I want to live my life with you.”
You slowly looked up into my eyes, full of fear but also full of love,
hoping to find a response in my now shocked face.
I was finally able to gather my senses and be pulled back to reality,
remembering to place my spoon that had already spilled the soup
all over the dinner mats.
I reached over the dinner table, capturing your cold and shaking hands.
I looked straight into your eyes.
I was never good with spoken words, unable to capture my true feelings.
With all the confidence and admiration in the world,
I hope you understood when I answered:
“Okay. Let’s go apartment hunting.”