I think it was his voice that drew me in first. It gave the kind of satisfaction that running your hands on the softest silk or leisurely stroking the delicate fur of your favourite cat would give. He was a manager at one of our branches and was invited to speak about the ongoing in his branch. I hadn’t set my eyes on him before but I was convinced I had. From another life maybe. Listening to him speak with authority and wisdom while the others, like me fed on his voice like a deserted migrant’s first sip of water, filled me with euphoria that I couldn’t explain.

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You might ask how I knew this. And it’s because the second he stopped speaking, no one else spoke. I reluctantly drew myself from the haze his voice had roped me in and looked at my colleagues. Silent. Longing. Lost. I guess I wasn’t the only person affected. Did that make me feel a tad territorial? I guess we’ll never know.

What I knew, however, was that every day from that day on, I pitched in ideas on different voice meetings we could have, just so I could hear his voice. It was kind of pathetic, seeing how I was more interested in that particular branch, but I was a desperate woman. I didn’t know what I was desperate for exactly but I knew I needed to keep hearing his voice and that too as often as I could. If I was going to be lost, what better way than for it to be by something so ethereal?

The next thing that drew me in was his eyes. So soulful and deep, I may have drowned in those pools. Was I.....drooling? Goodness God, I hope no one saw that.

Get a grip.

It feels like we’ve skipped, doesn’t it? No, we haven’t. I truly am a woman of mission. Turns out, barely a month later, there was a need for the top staff at the headquarters to visit the other branches and see whether the funded projects were underway.

You needn’t look at me like that, I wasn’t the one that came up with that plan. But did I float an idea to my boss, who might I add, I’m of excellent standing with, to push the dates three months before? Yeah, I most definitely did. What was the use of winning staff of the year three times in a row if I didn’t use those perks to my favour once in a while?

So here I was, face to face with the owner of that melodious voice. Or not exactly face to face, since he was talking directly to my boss. I didn’t know when I breathed a sigh of relief. Somehow, I had kept an open mind to the reality that I may not find him attractive. Thankfully, that wasn’t the case. Then, I realized with a start that my sigh may had been audible. Because everyone’s eyes were suddenly on me. Dreamy-voice, Manager Jonathan included. Those eyes pinned steadfastly on mine as he let out a rumbling chuckle. It was a sealed deal. I knew it and he did too.

The final thing that drew me in was his dreams. His dreams held power. Listening to his goals, talking about our future even as we planned the wedding. Have I fast-tracked too much for you? I guess so. A year later and we were getting set for our wedding in the Fall. His dreams were like painted skies. They weren’t lofty ideas of lazy men. They weren’t baseless ambitions of a man who did nothing but talk and dream without ever doing anything about his talks or his dreams.

His words held power. Like the brush of an artist, he held my hand as we painted our lives and future together. “I think I’ll call you Aurora,” he said the first time we had a conversation. And when I asked him why, he said, “Cause you remind me of something so rare and ethereal. You light up the world, like a painted sky.”

I still tease him about how cheesy that sounded. But at that time, I had blushed to the roots of my hair. Well, there isn’t much to our story after that. And I guess any more intricate details of our lives would bore you. But one day, when we are old and grey, and the call of the beyond would be more insistent by the day, we would sit huddled together and stare at the mysterious Northern lights that would suddenly appear. “Aurora,” we'd both whisper and then smile. Beauty untold.

Jhymi🖤