A Love Letter in Love & War

Dear Love,

We were driving to a burger joint for dinner tonight when I turned to look at you in the car. You were so focused on the road that you didn’t notice me studying your profile, but you looked so relaxed and yet in control with one hand on the steering wheel and the other on my leg. In those few moments, my heart swelled up so much that I was afraid my rib cage would give out, and I came to the realization that you are the one.

As that thought hit me, the first question that came to mind was “why did it take me this long to find you?”

I first met you 2 years ago at a restaurant during the Super Bowl. My first impression of you wasn’t the greatest since you were drinking with your friends and enjoying the game, and you may have gotten a little carried away with the celebration. Over the past 2 years I ran into you occasionally around the city but we never really chatted until earlier this year when my cousin reintroduced us. I was surprised to find out that you and my cousin have been friends for almost 20 years, as I’m sure you were when you found out that your long-time friend was my cousin.
You try to put on a manly front, but I know deep down you’re a romantic because you believe in fate, just like me. So it only made sense when you started messaging me every single day after that, asking me out. I have to admit that I had doubts about you at first because you don’t have the best reputation around town, but there was something that drew me to you, and everything I knew about you at the time was exactly what I was looking for in a man. Knowing that, it was only a matter of time before we started spending time together.
I don’t know if I’ll ever tell you this in person, but during the first few dates, I was intimated by you. You were so popular and knew so many people, girls loved you, guys wanted to be you, you could have had anyone you wanted. I have solid credentials and I’m not terrible looking, but your reputation still made me wonder what you were doing with me. We went out a few times and I was constantly on high alert, waiting for the bottom of this thing to drop out from beneath me and for me to come crashing back to the ground, but the bottom stayed put.

I’ve been in many long term relationships and have never felt this sense of certainty and security before. Being with you just feels 1,000% right in a way that I never experienced with anyone else. In my previous relationships, I knew there was no future because there was always something holding me back, whether the timing was off with them, or they didn’t treat me very well, or I couldn’t be myself around them. Whatever the reason, I eventually broke it off with them because I knew we weren’t meant to be together in the end. Don’t ask me how I knew, I just knew.

Even before my epiphany tonight, I had a growing suspicion that you were it for me. A few weeks ago when I first asked you what you liked most about me, you didn’t go for my looks or my brains, like so many other guys would. Instead, you told me that I have a good heart, and all the walls that I had put up around that same heart came crumbling down. Before I met you, I had started to accept the path to spinsterhood and resigned myself to staying single forever. You came out of nowhere and took me by surprise, and I finally feel the unbridled, uninhibited, and unrestrained love that I was waiting for all this time.

I had to get my thoughts out before I burst with them, and I also needed to tell you that you’re everything I ever wanted in a man. It took me 31 years to find you, and I’m never going to let you go. We have a long road ahead of us, and for the first time in my life, I can picture the destination with you. I can’t wait.