Second chance romance?

Jenny had always thought that the events of her life would play like a well-rehearsed play. Study, graduate, get engaged to the “right” person, and everything falls into place. That was what she told herself when she accepted her fiancé’s proposal, the one her family adored. It was safe. Sensible. The kind of choice that made everyone proud.

Then came Dennis.

A pull so irresistible that she couldn’t fight it. They crossed paths during her final year at university. It wasn’t anything scandalous, just friendly chats in the library, group projects, and shared laughter over coffee. He wasn’t trying to win her over, and she wasn’t looking for anything more. Still, there was a force that kept drawing them together.

The time slipped by, and Jenny thought she had succeeded in silencing whatever flickered between them. But one restless evening, as their time in university came closer to end, she found herself dialing his number.

“Tell me… did you ever feel it too?”, she asked with a trembling voice.

Her heart scolded her for this audacity.

There was silence. And she realised: some silences are heavier than the words...

But they acted as if nothing had happened. They started talking again. About books, about songs, about the silliest things, the kind of banter that stitched itself into her daily rhythm.

She often wished he would make it easier. That Dennis would say, “Forget me, Jenny. Marry him. Do not look back.” But he never did. Instead, he left the door slightly open, just barely enough!

The breaking point came weeks before her wedding. They sat together in the cafeteria, the world bustling outside while they once again chose silence that was anything but empty. Finally, Dennis spoke. “Yes, Jenny, I feel it too. But we are not meant to be together.” He continued to say something about her future and his commitments and how it was impossible for them, but she was barely listening.

Jenny scarcely heard the whole of his reasoning. For one brief moment, she imagined abandoning all restraint, choosing passion over propriety, but she was only able to whisper, “Ok...”

Time, as it always does, carried them forward. Jenny’s marriage, though not touched with the brilliance of romance, afforded her contentment in companionship and peace in routine. She discovered that affection could be cultivated, if not at first felt.

For Dennis, it was different. He did not seek another Jenny. Instead, he carried her memory as a quiet ember, a reminder that sometimes the purest form of love is not possession but letting go. Letting go of what, or perhaps not letting go of? Oh, of so many things... her future, maybe his parents’ sacrifices, and his own dreams. He wrote about her once in his journal:

Our story was never about forever. It was about a love that proved itself by letting go. That was our second romance, the one not lived in time, but kept in memory.

And perhaps that was what made it bearable for them both. Their romance existed twice: once in stolen moments, and again in the nobility of their goodbye...

Some tales don't end with vows. They culminate with the quiet strength of letting go.

And maybe, just maybe, that too is love.

---

But as fate would have it, they crossed paths once again. She carried a touch of age that only added to her grace. And him? Perhaps the same, or maybe a little wiser. She walked into his office, looking for a job. And there he was, as had been waiting for this very moment...

So this was it. You let me go, her eyes seemed to say. Once again, silence. At last, she spoke the words she had never dared to utter: “Why? Why the silence on the phone that day, and why the confession when you let me go?”

She screamed. She was hysterical!

Before she could say more, he silenced her, not with words, but with a kiss. Fierce, desperate, years of longing compressed into a single act.

“No,” he whispered against her lips. “Not this time. I’m not letting you go.”

She froze, trembling, the taste of the past and present colliding. For a heartbeat, it seemed everything lost had been returned. For the briefest moment, the silence between them felt like healing. Yet, just as he reached for her hand, she stepped back.

“This time,” she said in the calmest voice, “it’s me who has to let go.”

And before he could stop her, she turned and walked away, leaving him with the echo of a second goodbye.

---

To be continued...

_sr

_{I don’t know if I did justice to the prompt, but I tried this very difficult one by @dove11.}

_{The original Prompt by @dove11}

Dennis's life seemed "perfect." He is a top corporate manager with all facilities. A house in the middle of the city and his image in the society. He has achieved everything with his hard work, but the story behind all his success is different. He is facing a burden in his life, a tiredness, or, you can say, a strange loneliness.

He remembers his past and the day when he had unintentionally hurt her coworker and girlfriend Jenny deeply.

Dennis goes into a flashback...

"That evening he was alone when Jenny entered his cabin. For some time they talked about work and personal life. Soon their conversation turned into heated argument and then they walked out of the office..."