In the world of gays, she was a black cat with a black cat named Saaya. And she was a golden retriever with a golden retriever, Cookie. It makes sense to title their story around the two dearest pieces of their hearts. Then, of course, they became pieces of each other’s hearts too.
Like the relief of cold wind on a warm sunny day, she came into her life. Let’s make this easier for all of us and call them Alysha and Leah. Alysha, the epitome of all things introvert, was a shy, quiet, and a broken nobody in her own eyes, except when she was with Leah. With Leah, she felt like she could reach for the stars and grab them by their ever-running tails.
For Alysha, Leah was all things light. She was a perfect apology from the universe, for her otherwise ill-luck. Alysha was used to being dealt the harder hand ever since she could remember. Negligent parents, a toxic family, and an unforgiving societal culture around her. She seemed to have been an outcast her entire life; being ‘queer’ even before she knew what the term meant, let alone how it could relate to her.
She didn’t fit in with her family, was barely able to carve her own space within friend groups, and never got any opportunities to socialize. So, you can only imagine that she was apprehensive when she first met Leah. In Alysha’s very complex head, it was simple: the ‘cool kids’ only talked to the ‘cool kids’. She had been a ‘nerd’ for so long that she found it hard to associate herself with any other label.
But here was Leah, the very definition of ‘cool kid’. If you ask Alysha, to this date, she would say that Leah’s name ought to be in the Oxford dictionary, right next to the definition of the word ‘cool’. The girl with the cool haircut, cool tattoos, and an even cooler air of confidence around her. All of this with a heart-stopping smile and absolutely gorgeous eyes. Alysha’s first meeting with Leah was about to change her life, and she probably didn’t have a clue.
Sitting at a well-lit corner table, anxiously waiting for her (very late) date (coincidentally on the night of Valentine’s!), draped in a black dress, was Alysha. After half an hour of frazzled calls with friends, she was all but ready to leave when Leah showed up. In a slightly see-through white shirt, she looked better than any knight in armor who had been written about.
What happened once they sat down to talk can be described as nothing less than magic. The hours flew by and conversations flowed. With their shared passion of working with children, their supreme love for animals, and mutual interest in cricket, they had multitudes in common. But what they had most of all, were butterflies. Large, colorful, undeniable butterflies.
Leah saw it much quicker, but ultimately even the voices in Alysha’s head could not refuse that this was something real. That they were “meant-to-be” if anyone ever was.
Leah awakened something in Alysha that never existed before – put simply, it was belonging. For all the conditions and manipulation that had existed in Alysha’s life before, Leah was unconditional in a way that made Alysha’s breaths fuller. The blood in Alysha’s veins just flowed freer now, her steps were skippier, and her heart glowed. She was deeply “in love” as they all say. It was all true if anyone was wondering. The sunshine was brighter, the grass greener, the sky bluer, and so on and so forth. Big feelings were being felt by them both, little else mattered.
And so began a magical year of celebration. A year of unsurmountable love, and never-ending joy. They were opposites in so many aspects that it would be unfair to not say they completed each other. Where Alysha was a serious black void, Leah was bright, golden sunshine. But God! They matched in all the right places. Leah’s gentleness was the balm that could heal Alysha’s broken heart. Being together felt just right, just perfect, and just what they needed. When the world was cruel, as it often is, they both found a home in each other’s arms; of course not very far from their fur babies either. This is what made their relationship whole. They loved each other and they loved each other’s loves.
