Chapter 2- The Man I Dreamt Of

– Initial meetings, long drives, sweet promises.

He didn’t walk in like a stranger. He entered like he had always belonged.

They say when you meet someone special, you just know. And maybe that’s what scared her the most — how right it felt from the beginning.

He wasn’t loud. He wasn’t trying too hard. But everything about him made her pause. The way he spoke, direct but calm. The way he drove, as if the world didn’t need rushing. The way he looked at her — steady, like he saw through all the noise she wore as armour.

That first drive lasted hours. The city outside blurred while time inside the car stood still.

He told her he had been watching her that day — not in a creepy way, he clarified with a smirk — but like he knew she was different. He said she had an energy he couldn’t ignore. That no matter how many people were around, his eyes somehow kept finding her.

Her heart skipped.

Because she had dreamt of this — a love that was quiet but certain, that didn’t come with games or guesses. A man who knew what he wanted and wasn't afraid to say it.

He asked about her. Really asked. Not the polite questions, but the deep ones. “What keeps you up at night?” “Have you ever felt like you were too much for this world?” “Do you believe in soul connections?”

She found herself opening up without caution. And he listened — not just with his ears, but with his eyes, his presence, like her words mattered more than anything else.

He said things she still hears in her mind now.

You’re rare. You think differently. I like that.”“With you, it feels peaceful — not forced.”“I’m not here to waste time. I know what I want.

She didn’t know how to respond, only that her soul exhaled in his presence. It had been a long time since anyone had made her feel seen without asking her to shrink.

It wasn’t love. Not yet.

But it was something sacred.

And so she let herself believe.

That maybe this time would be different. Perhaps this wasn’t another lesson wrapped up as a person.

She didn’t know then that the same voice that made her feel understood would later silence her. That the same eyes that once adored her would look through her. That the same man who made her feel chosen would one day choose someone else, and blame her for everything he didn’t want to forgive.

But that night, she wasn’t afraid.

She was just a girl sitting in the passenger seat, slowly falling for the man she thought only existed in her dreams. She was living the fairy tale that night, three and a half months ago.