My IMperfect Love Life by Neha Dua (audio ebook reader txt) 📕

Steve was a mystery guy for me. I have never seen him in his playful role like people of the office used to say for him. It was the time of Christmas, I was on leaves for few days for some family get-together, when suddenly a text popped up on my cell phone from Steve, saying he wants to see a picture of me at my family get-together party. I was shocked at first about the text which I received from this mystery guy, with whom my professional life didn’t start on good terms at all. I was also excited to get to know him more and so I sent him a pic of mine with my cousins. We were chatting on that day normally but for a limited time as I was busy being involved in my family celebrations.

Steve and I started well from that point in time and we celebrated our New Year’s Party together. We did a lot of eye contact during our party, but nobody noticed. We were also not sure of what we were trying to convey to each other but we both felt good vibes about each other. We both got drunk on New Year’s party and he while going back, took my hands in his hands and walked with me a little aside from everyone else so that nobody could hear us out. He said into my ears very softly and gently removing my hair from my ears that “We both started with a fight and mind you, with whom I start with a fight, I always end up having the best friendship with them”.

Since that day, we became best friends and he included me into his group of colleagues, seniors, and juniors. We started to feel comfortable around each other more rather than being with everyone else around us. We used to have our little hangouts to new places, cafes, roadside benches. We made a pact for a place that we both liked going and declared it to be “Only Our Memories Place” that in future, whenever we will meet, we will just meet at that place only to steal a day for ourselves from our busy schedules and enjoy our old memories and chats.

We shared our past experiences of life, relationships, friendships, families, sacrifices we made. We became very close friends that nobody else knows about us in that much detail that we both knew about each other. I got to know in this particular time which I spent with him that he is emotional by heart but doesn’t like to show and share his feelings with anyone.

Steve has made himself so closed from the outside that he doesn’t let anyone inside his heart and feel his pain and emotions. He has his virtue of thoughts that if people can understand him the way he is from the outside and he doesn’t want to open up with others, people should respect that, irrespective of the fact that people would love to care for him, love him if he will let others do it. 

Steve is an introvert and doesn’t enjoy being around too many people. I being an extrovert now, was an open book for him to read and judge. We both have very different perceptions about life. He shared his past experiences of being betrayed by a girl twice and since then not being driven towards any girl emotionally, so he just focused on the responsibilities of his family and career. Till the time of his graduation, he enjoyed his life being away from his family, partying every weekend with his friends, having fun with colleagues, and girls on trips.

Then the time came when he had to start his job at a very young age and had to take responsibility for his family since then, to provide them the financial support. He then moved to my city, City of Hearts with a dream of becoming a big name in the list of entrepreneurs. This race of being on top and to support his little siblings, made him a matured guy before his actual age. He lost all the fun with people and started to live alone with just a thought in his mind that he has to provide comfort to his mother and family first regardless of how hard he has to push himself to get to that stage, working all day and night.

Steve tried his level best to be a good son, brother, boyfriend, and a leader in his personal and professional life, but in his opinion, he still had to improve in every field. He lost his love also in the past after which he never really felt warmth for any girl and made efforts to put forward his feelings. He was only concerned about his family to support his siblings' education and their lives. He stopped thinking about himself, his happiness, and his comforts.

Steve was only focused on giving his family a ravishing and comfortable life, which he couldn’t get when he wanted that. He is till now working more than a usual shift timing to support them financially and to live his life on his own conditions. Maybe this lifestyle has made him hard like stone, that he didn’t find time to love himself the way he should be loved. All these sacrifices of him made a soft corner in my heart and since then I always thought of supporting him emotionally, as I was also alone because of my failed friendships and love life. We tried to look for happiness for each other in everything we did.

I expressed my strong liking towards him because of his caring and supportive nature which I was always looking for in every guy I met earlier in my life. I also thought that boys should have a soft corner for their partners and for their families. They both should be his foremost priorities along with career and ambitions. A guy with love and care in his eyes, is the best combo that you can have in life to be with as a friend or as a life partner.

Steve and I used to watch each other through our eyes contact only in office premises. We loved this kind of interaction with people around us not knowing about our connections and we enjoyed teasing and playing with our eyes. Steve also expressed his feelings of liking towards me. Such lovely feelings started to emerge in between both of us, but with the seniors around, he started to maintain his distance just to safeguard my image in front of others, so that nobody could blame me.

We were deeply influenced by our feelings that we couldn’t control them, and whenever we find the time, we used to sneak a peek at each other after office hours and go on coffee dates, spend some time together. We used to get drunk with each other. I had never tried before this much of the drinking as I was never fond of drinking, but I always had this wish to try out at least all the flavors of drinks. I always felt safe and happy with him and then I decided to try all my wishes of drinks in front of him only as "I trusted him that he will handle me under any circumstances and will never leave me".

Even within our group parties, he used to take care of me till the time I reach home safely. He always made sure that he was near me whenever I was drunk more than required, as I was the only one in my group who couldn’t even handle a single alcoholic drink. I fulfilled my wish of tasting almost many of the alcoholic drinks with him only.

We were so used to seeing each other every day that we always tried to find excuses to talk to each other even when we were into different departments. We used to take care of each other in very unique ways. I being an extrovert always does everything openly and he being an introvert liked to a “Silent Guardian” in every aspect. I was very much expressive with everything and he was just a silent lover. He loved nature and I loved being with him every moment of my time. 

Our bond started to grow well. We both decided to go on a trip during winters together just to spend time alone and explore each other more and get to know the likes and dislikes of each other. We went to a place we both loved, in the mountains. We reached there at late night and were waiting for our rooms to be prepared. It took more than the expected time so we decided to roam around till early in the morning and to watch the sun rising from the mountains.

Steve got emotional suddenly about his