Greta and Raul's story

[Fic]

Girls never came there of course, but we dudes always acted like there was going to be a gaggle of attractive single women ready to fall into our arms coming in any moment. They'll be here, we told our friends who asked what the unused scented candles the fairy lights the cute decorations were for. Any moment now. The two years I lived in that place, there was never a womanly presence in that apartment. Well, not a single womanly presence, friends came here and there with their girlfriends, sisters and cousins and friends who were women were over sometimes, but never the sort of women we imagined, we wanted to be. We imagined ourselves to be such studs ready for action, alas all our delusions were thwarted by the harsh reality of our social lives.

When I was seeing Greta we always spent time at her place. Her place was nicer, her friends more interesting and there was always something happening in there. Not that hers was a particularly better neighborhood than mind, all the neighborhoods inside the ringroad were equally good or bad depending on your option except the cooler places like Lazimpat and Jhamsikhel but that was beyond either of our reaches. Over the year and a half, her roommates rotated several times, as they came for short voluntary stints. That's something that she was bummed out about in Kathmandu -- she never had a set of permanent friends, people she could count upon or rely on, everyone was temporary. I'm here, I said, and my friends are yours too, but she dismissed it. I was different she said, I was a boyfriend and you need to have a friend group independent of your boyfriend's. That changed once our paths started crossing professionally later, she didn't know that was going to happen at first though.

We cooked over at her place at least once a week, invited people over regularly too. What she liked the most about the parties was that they'd be over by 9 on most days, only the nearest dearest and the most energetic would hang out late and they'd gone be gone by 11 too. Lots of personal space and time to sleep, that she was glad about. I don't mind the mingling and irritating socially all day long, she confided to me once about the Nepali tendency to not give personal space, as long as they leave me early in the evening. And she was a late riser too, got up at 8 to make the 8.30 office time. I told her a lot of colleges ended at 10, she was getting up at when most college students ended their days. She said she was glad she didn't go to college in Nepal.

And then we met other friends. Nepali-foreign couples like ourselves too. There was an artist couple who had recently moved in together, an even bigger deal those days than it is now. We asked them if they wanted to get married ever, and he said, eventually. It was surprising to me because Greta's visa situation was always complicated and we'd joke about getting married to simplify things. But they were just that, always, jokes, because we knew -- well I did at least -- that I'd leave for college at the end of the tenure and that'd be the end of us. I offered her to apply for grad schools in the U.S, where I was going to be, but she didn't care, and we never really talked about it. There's no doubt in my mind we really loved each, we really did we weren't just messing about we weren't just just fucking around, but our relationship had an expiration which was sort of a bummer. But but that's how life is, you know sometimes you really can't do much about it, and you just accept things as they are and life your life to the fullest while you still can.