Relationships
2 mo

Mon Bel Ami - My Pretty Friend

It’s 2015…

and I am 18…

My friends and I, sit in the old huge auditorium and listen to the lesson about the Ancient Roman Law,

As a boy our age enters classroom and every girl starts whispering about him,

My best friends are asking one another

“Why is he studying law? He’s so handsome and sophisticated.”

Some other girls are saying “I’ve heard - he is a writer.”

“No, I think, he is a swimming champion, I saw him on TV and couldn’t forget him. Have you ever seen someone so beautiful.?”

These are the things girls were talking, while I was probably the only one trying to listen to the Ancient Rome’s Law and only one to not look at him and gossip.

Later, that week - I was in the library, reading a book and I really loved looking out of the window, so I always sat by the window seat and looked out to the old building of a university as I was reading…

I was lost in my thoughts when someone stood in front of me and asked,

“May I sit at your desk?”

I looked up and saw there he was - A guy - that the whole Law Faculty had a crush on.

I looked around and the library was almost empty and I was a bit confused as to why he chose my desk, but he was very polite and looked at me so kindly, I could not turn it down and told him

“Sure.”

He smiled as he sat, opened his book and with little interest to the book and curiosity in his eyes, looked at me up and down and said

“I’ve never seen eyes like yours. Could you look at me, please? I want to remember them.”

And as he was looking at my eyes fondly and I was trying not to feel shy, he spoke again

“Your eyes are like the map, the most beautiful eyes - I have seen in my life. You look like the girl out of the book.”

It made me laugh, I thanked him and kept reading the book.

Soon, I decided to leave and he said

“Wait, where can I see you again?”

“ I am usually in the library in the afternoons. You can find me - by the desk at the window.” - I answered.

“Tell me your name, at least…”

I told him my name…

And he told me his.

Let’s call him “Bel Ami”…

He started coming to the library everyday and always finding me to sit by my side.

Mon Bel Ami - My Pretty Friend

We used to read books together and then share the thoughts to each other,

We used to go out and walk together, as he was reading his poetry to me and listening to my poetry,

We used to go to the theatres and we used to dance in the rain in the rainy evenings ,

We used to go the coffee shops around our university, drink tea and he would read to me for hours.

One day he told me

“You are the most unique person I’ve met… I can’t stop exploring how deep you are. I just feel so lucky to have met you.”

That’s when he read me his poetry written about me…

He used to share my poems on his page and write

“I am the proudest person to know her.”

In the university, girls started gossiping that we were in a relationship.

But soon he once told me about his life story too… Seems like he has had a girlfriend, since he was 14, but his girlfriend left the country with her family when they were both 17 and before leaving they swore loyalty to each other and he promised her that as soon as he would finish the university, he would go to her and marry her.

He also told him “If not my promise to her, I’d love to stay here - with you.”

When I heard that he had a girlfriend he was about to marry in couple years, I thought it would not be fair for me to keep being friends with him,

because I will be a liar if I say that I didn’t like him…

I liked him everytime he held my hand, looked at my eyes and read for me.

I liked him when we danced in the rain.

I also liked him - when he kissed my hand and told me he admired me.

And all my friends thought he liked me too.

So, I felt like being friends with him would not be fair to me or to his Long Distant Girlfriend and we slowly drifted apart, because I no longer met him.

He would often write me that he missed me and when he left the country after university and got married he sent me an invitation…

I couldn’t go at that time.

Later on, he came back to the country along with his wife,

and called me saying

“I told my wife how important it is - my bond with you. I told her you are very precious to me and I read her some of your poems, she wants to know you, she wants to be friends with you too. Maybe you can come to see us? I cannot lose you.”

I had firmly decided to no longer meet him though.

I didn’t have strong romantic feelings to him, but I thought maybe our friendship wouldn’t be the way it was - anymore.

Maybe I was wrong, but I think since we both, liked each other in some way, it would be very unfair to both, me and his wife - to keep our “friendship”.

As I was leaving to China,

I received a text -

“I’ve heard you are leaving… I want to see you. I miss you. Please, don’t go without seeing me.”

That was too late, my flight was in 3 hours and I was in the airport.

Probably it was for the better.

***

Years later, when I went back to Georgia, I met a man, who called me by my name, I was surprised how he knew me as I didn’t know who he was.

He came to me and told me

“ Hey… I am “Bel Ami’s” friend… Your eyes are really as pretty as he said they were. I am happy to have seen you, I’ve heard so much about you…”

I smiled and said “Thank you.”

That was all…

I have never seen nor heard of him again.

He now lives abroad and is still married to that girl he was in a relationship with when he was 14.

Mon Bel Ami - My Pretty Friend

I even almost forgot about him, until now, when I read a question about “Where can you meet your soulmate?”

And one of the answers said a “Library.”

I don’t think he was my soulmate,

But, I feel like Library is a wonderful place for meeting wonderful people.

Mon Bel Ami - My Pretty Friend
Mon Bel Ami - My Pretty Friend
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