May I, My Love? ✔

31. t h e o b l i v i o n

It has now been one whole week since I accepted the prince's proposal, and started dating him.

One whole week of absolute bliss.

One week ago, I finally gave in to my heart's desire, and succumbed in front of Josiah.

Even though I know that our end is inevitable, I couldn't stop myself.

Even though I know that we are both uselessly trying to alter our destinies, I want to run towards him incessantly.

Even though it hasn't been too long for us, I already feel connected to him somehow.

When I came back from the cottage on that rainy night, I couldn't find Lisa anywhere, and then found out that she had returned to the house. We stayed up till the wee hours and I told her exactly what happened which made her so elated, especially when she heard of my 'incredible courage'.

None of us were aware of the expiration date of this relationship, but since we are still young and inexperienced in the affairs of the world, we chose to not think too much about it. And for once, I too, gave in and implicitly followed Lisa's advice of living a jolly and blissful life – 'Never Overthink'.

Josiah and I would meet each other everyday at the cottage. I would go under the pretext of playing the piano, and he would come under the excuse of going for a run. The mornings were usually busy and nobody had a lot of time to notice anything, so it was the perfect time for us to meet. It didn't mean that I wasn't nervous or anxious or wasn't biting off my nails from worrying too much. But as days passed and we succeeded every time, I became more and more confident.

As usual, today too, I woke up early for another meeting with Josiah. It was a miracle that I didn't miss even a single day in the past week, which would be sort of suspicious for my parents, but I already convinced the maidservant to not tell any of this to them. They would wake up at eight a.m. everyday without fail, and by that time, I would already be home, so there was no need to let them know about something which they weren't going to see.

As soon as I entered the cottage, he was already waiting for me, as always. At first, when we met as promised, it was so awkward between us that it made me want to fling myself off a cliff. The inebriation of the night before had faded long before, and when the memories came rushing back – specifically those of the unexpected kiss – it served as another embarrassment. So I couldn't say anything for the longest time and just kept my head down, in hopes of not catching his eye. Yes, it was stupid, considering that I was dating him, but I really didn't want to look at him in the eye that day.

Of course, situations changed. I got more confident in facing him and talking to him without any inhibition. We discovered each other's favourite colors, food, books, movies and other little pieces of information, and suddenly, it felt like we weren't strangers anymore.

I came to know that his favorite colors were on the darker spectrum, but it was expected from him since I had never actually seen him wearing lighter or pastel tones. He was a true patriot, in the sense of cuisines, and seldom liked to eat food which was not a part of the traditional British cuisines.
This amused me a lot, because he would definitely have to travel around the world later on, and this little habit of his would not be fulfilled everywhere. But that logic too, didn't stop him from incessantly singing praises of our country's dishes and brilliant taste.

In books too, he was pretty old school. Instead of liking books that today's generation went bonkers after, like the Harry Potter series or The Percy Jackson one, he was all for the classics. Arthur Conan Doyle, Jane Austen, Agatha Christie, and William Shakespeare were his favourites.

Talking to him was like opening Pandora's Box – you never know what you might find inside. As I gradually learned more and more about him and his quirky habits, I got more and more attached to him. It was now to the extent that I couldn't discriminate between what was wrong and what was right.

All worries of the future were happily forgotten as soon as I saw him, and all fear was lost midway, as soon as he kissed me goodbye every day. I was living life in an oblivion, and I was more than willing to do so for the rest of my life too.