Te Amo, Alberto...

The Night I Almost Stayed Home

I wasn’t supposed to go.
The music wasn’t mine,
The people too loud,
The air was thick with perfumes I didn’t recognize.
But somehow
I said yes.
Reluctantly. Halfhearted.
Not knowing, the night had plans for me.
I told myself: Just one hour.
But fate is sneaky like that.
It puts you in places you think you don’t belong
Just to prove you do.

The moment I set my eyes on you,
Everything shifted.
The room blurred,
Voices collapsed into whispers,
And you…
You became the only thing in focus.
I lost my bearings,
Forgot the reason I came,
Forgot the door I planned to slip back through.
Your smile wrecked me.
That subtle curve
Bold and soft in the same breath.
The way you tilted your head,
The way you flirted without effort
It was everything I didn’t know I was waiting for.

You laughed,
And it echoed straight through me,
Like someone opened a window in my chest.
You spoke,
And the air changed.
And I,
Who had guarded my heart like a fortress,
Found myself handing you the keys
Before I even knew your name.
No grand declarations.
No fireworks.
Just a calm, certain knowing
The kind that settles in your bones and refuses to be denied.
It pains me
To think I almost stayed home.
That I nearly missed
The moment everything in me whispered:
That one.
Him.
Now.

But I came.
And I saw you.
And in a crowd of strangers,
I connected with only you.
As if the night had been waiting
just for us.