Meeting your treasured one after a very long time of not having seen each other has got to be the best and most exciting part of trying to be in a long-distance relationship. You have to admit that the magical moment of finally being able to lay your eyes on her after a long time of communicating through Facetime feels as if a huge load of emotional stress has been lifted from your shoulders.

When that meeting finally happens, even with all the awkwardness, nervousness and bewilderment of actually being together after a long time, you’d both want to throw away caution to the wind and give each other the affection that you’ve both been longing for. The first intense hug, the peck on the cheek and that first passionate kiss sum up all the beautiful feelings that have been bottled inside. And, it is a huge relief to finally let your feelings flow.

Despite making plans to make the meeting as perfect as possible, what happens in real life is more of comedy of errors. There’s always a big gap between expectations and reality. Of course, you’d want everything to fall into place as perfect as possible, but there will always be curve balls. You learn to take what’s in front of you and just wing with it.

In my case, being able to finally lay my eyes on Lizzy after nearly a year of not having seen her was tempered by the fact that we went out on a group lunch. Hence, I had to behave accordingly. It was awkward not being able to say and do exactly what I had in mind, but seeing her right before my very eyes was simply amazing.

And being out on a first date with Lizzy was just as nerve-wracking. I would have wanted it to take place in a perfect romantic setting – at sunset while sipping wine and smoking cigars. And, I would have wanted to make a move on her under that setting. However, plans could fall through under a mixed confluence of imperfect weather, poor execution and awkward hesitation – as what happened that evening. The beach-side date was otherwise perfect except for the torrential rains that messed it all up.

That first meeting was not all blissful feeling. The awkwardness of not having seen each other was heightened by so much overthinking and self-imposed pressure that I totally missed the moment and clammed up. It’s is easy to flirt through SMS, but when it’s time to back up the talk with real action,sometimes even the best of us wither at the moment.

Yet, there’s always the great equalizer when it comes to nervous hesitation – imbibing alcohol. In my case, sharing with her a sip a vodka variant drowned out the overthinking and hesitation. And when it was time to make my move, I took what was best available and finally kiss her like I’ve always wanted to. Well, that first kiss with Lizzy was, let’s say, very memorable indeed. How could I forget. We nearly rammed another car while kissing.

[Note: This post was first published on November 8, 2016 at https://abelsantaanave.blogspot.com]