Annya's Enchanted Realities

The day started with too many twists. I received a call from my workplace, saying that I didn’t have to go in to work since one of my colleagues had an emergency family function, and I needed to swap my offs with her. Everyone would normally look forward to this, but not me. I was seriously bored and had no idea what to do. I finished all the chores at home to pass the time, but the clock seemed to move too slowly for some reason.

Well, the only pastime I had now was to visit my Facebook page. I’ve been away from it for a while now, so I thought maybe scrolling through those feeds would be exciting. But it was not as much fun as I expected. I could see many couples-goal quotes, photos, videos, and so on…

I felt so lonely. I’ve been single for quite some time now. I noticed that I had many message requests in the bucket. With some built-up courage, I opened it. There were a lot of messages from strangers and friends who had become strangers too. I didn’t know which of those messages I wanted to respond to. Suddenly something popped in my head. When I was a kid, if I didn’t know what to pick, I used to close my eyes and use my finger to pick one. More of a ‘spin the wheel’ kind of moment. I did the same, and there he was.

His profile looked decent. He had been messaging me for at least 3 months now. Once a week like clockwork, but I had never responded until now. It said that he was online too. So I responded, ‘Hello,’ along with a smiley waving ‘Hi.’ He immediately responded, and I started sweating. Because I didn’t actually think he would respond. He had responded, ‘Hey, How are you?’.

I responded, ‘I’m fine. And you?’.

‘I’m good. I am so glad to hear from you,’ he texted. ‘So how’s work? Do you still work for that banking firm?’.

I was embarrassed with myself. Seems like he knew me pretty well. Then I quickly checked my profile to see if I had that information made available for people to see. But it wasn’t. I started cursing myself. ‘He works with you and you don’t even know him. Great! Just great Annya.’

While cursing myself, I responded, ‘Yeah, I still work here. And you?’.

He realized that I was in a dilemma. He clarified. Turns out he worked in the same building as my company, but he had moved on to a different company. He said that he’d always wanted to talk to me but he felt so embarrassed to strike a conversation in-person, so when he saw my profile on Facebook, he messaged me.

This, for some reason, put me at ease. The conversation kept flowing until he asked me out when I told him about the unexpected off. I couldn’t say no because I just told him that it was my off and I didn’t have any plans. So I said yes.

Later that evening, we were supposed to meet up at a mall near my place. I was panicking and worried. I started cursing my manager and the colleague for swapping my offs. Luckily, I got a call from my friend that evening.

About an hour before the ‘date,’ I got a call from my friend. We’ve been meaning to meet for some time now, and she invited me over to her boyfriend’s house to throw a surprise birthday party. I was so delighted when she asked, not because of the party, but because I could cancel this ‘date’ with the guy I just met online. She said she will come pick me up in an hour and dropped the call.

I was now getting ready, not for the date but for the surprise birthday party. Little did I know that it was me who was going to be surprised. I texted the guy saying that something came up and so we couldn’t meet up today and turned off the mobile data to obscure from being contacted by him.

My friend came home to pick me up, and on our way to her boyfriend’s place, I told her about the events that had happened today and thanked her for rescuing me. She was mad at me for not telling it before, but I said, ‘It’s alright. Maybe it was just not meant to be.’

We reached the boyfriend’s house, and she had the keys. We started decorating the room and set up the cake and everything. While we were at it, I had also shared the contents and photos that we had exchanged that morning. The discussions and decorations were done, and we were ready to surprise her boyfriend.

Her boyfriend had come back from work, and when he opened the door, he was surprised with our cake and decorations. Right after we cut the cake, her boyfriend said to my friend, ‘You’ve surprised me, and now it’s my turn’ and went running into his room upstairs.

Then he came back down and had nothing in his hands. We looked confused. He then pulled my friend in the middle of the room and kneeled before her with one leg. He pulled out a small box from his pant pockets and said, ‘I’ve been waiting for the right moment for months now, and I think that this is it. I know you always care for me, and you never cease to surprise me. But today I want to make this day more special for you… for us. I’m surprised that I found you in my life, and I would love my life to be filled with such sweet and amazing surprises forever. Will you be my forever surprise, my love?’

She immediately jumped and said ‘I am surprised it took so long, but you finally did it. Yes, I will’.

I could feel the love in the air, and at that moment, for a second, I thought maybe I missed my chance for such a happy ending. I wished him a happy birthday and them both a hearty congratulations.

After the celebrations, we decided to dine in. We had already cooked dinner and set it up on the rooftop. While we were setting up for dinner, my friend set up a plate for four. Then she told me that her boyfriend’s roommate would be joining us for dinner. I said okay.

I heard a phone ringing. All our phones were near the staircase nearby, and I looked at the screen of the phone that rang and was shocked. My friend asked me to pick up the phone, but I stood there completely paralyzed, unable to move. She then saw the screen, and she was shocked too.

‘Isn’t this him? Is he calling you? You didn’t say you shared the number,’ she kept asking questions.

I said in a shrilling voice, ‘It’s your boyfriend’s phone.’

We both looked at the screen name. It said ‘Roomie’ with a guy’s photo plastered on it. It was none other than the guy that I canceled the date with. While we both were realizing what was happening, her boyfriend had answered the call, and he said, ‘Hey roomie, just come on up. We’re all set here.’

My friend’s fiance just informed us that he will be joining us because he needs some happy moments. The girl he was hoping to meet up stood him up. As the roommate came up the stairs, my friend couldn’t resist a mischievous grin. She whispered a snarky comment about the girl who stood him up, and before I could react, he came to my defense.

“Don’t worry, bro. The girl is right here, and you didn’t miss your chance with her,” my friend declared with a playful tone.

I couldn’t help but chuckle nervously. The roommate looked at me, surprise evident in his eyes. ‘So this is the unexpected event that you stood me up for,’ he said. The atmosphere suddenly shifted, a mix of curiosity and realization filling the room.

That night was full of laughter and shared stories. We connected on a level that surpassed the awkwardness of the canceled date. Surprisingly, we hit it off. The evening unfolded into a beautiful chapter, and little did we know, it marked the beginning of something special.

Fast forward to their wedding day, where in the middle of the celebration of my friend’s love story, he decided to make our connection a permanent one. Surrounded by love and the echoes of our shared laughter, he got down on one knee and asked the question that changed everything.

I said ‘yes’, and in that moment, we began our life journey together, forever grateful for the unexpected twists and turns that led us to that fateful night.