It had been six years since I last saw her.
"..."
There was not much about her that changed. From the quirky way she tied her hair for convenience's sake, to still wearing the cheap earring that I bought her as a last ditch effort to get her a birthday present.
But maybe that should be expected.
After all, that was the last memory I had of her.
The exact outfit she wore the last time I saw her.
Back then, I didn't knew it would be our last fateful encounter. And never in a million years would I have expected things to go sideways so quickly.
"What brings you here?" She asked.
I replied with a shrug "What else?"
"You, of course."
"Why are you still holding on? What do you get from this" she said. I always thought she would say something like this.
"I get to see you again. And know that you are somehow, somewhere, safe and sound."
"You have to move on. What is done cannot be undone." Her voice slightly breaking.
"I never knew I loved you until I lost you. And since then I have never experienced anything quite alike"
There was a silence that lingered. After a few minutes she finally said: "Someday you will find someone else to love."
"Before I met you, I never learnt to love. And yet now I have there is no one else I would rather love."
"Please, it pains me to see you grieve. How can you love when you are filled with grieved." Her voice finally broke, and she bursted into tears.
"..."
"What is grief..." I responded calmly,
"If not love persevering?"
"So let me mourn. Let me express all the love I wanted to give you in the form of grief."