CHAPTER 3

Cindy meanwhile, was done catching up with her acquaintance and was feeling quite drained. It was now well into the evening and heading home and getting some rest was really enticing. The only thing holding her tired feet back from heading that way was her friend Evelyn’s photo walk event which was taking place that night. 

She was really not feeling up to going for many reasons: It’d been a really long day, she didn’t have her camera with her, except for the one on her phone, it was already dark, She didn’t feel like walking, and, perhaps more importantly, She wasn’t in the brightest of moods… Should She just go home? Or should She head to the photo walk?

Gerard Just around that time, he would have been browsing F******k. He had already clicked ‘interested’ on F******k for Evelyn’s photo walk event before so it had popped up again on his notifications. It was around half past eight or a quarter to nine, and he was questioning whether he really wanted to quickly pull himself together and rush there. He needed to get on the subway, switch and take another connecting train. He really wasn’t sure if he could be bothered or if he had any energy left for anything anymore. In addition, In he didn’t even have a camera. He simply didn’t own one.

His relationship with his phone is very different than what is the norm and he didn’t always carry it with him by default like everyone does, he always had to see how he felt about it. Did he feel like taking his phone with him that night? No, he didn’t. So he wouldn’t even have anything to take photos with at this photo walk event.

Evelyn seemed like a nice girl but he didn’t know her all that well either…

Another important point that Cindy couldn’t ignore is she don’t even like taking photos! That’s why her motivation to go was so low… 

Gerard was like what he’s going to do.

He took a quick look at the people responding to the event invite. They seemed like a nice, cheerful crowd made up of a lot of expats from different backgrounds. Seemed like they were all going for a photo exhibit and a drink afterwards too. 

Cindy’s next to her long mental list of reasons not to go was one simple reason why She should go and it was one that was close to her heart she really did want to support her sweet friend Evelyn who was organizing everything. 

That thought trumped everything else! 

She managed to gather the final remnants of her energy and started to make her way over to the event.

Gerard finally had a decision clicked into place for him too.

Okay, He will just drop by, why not?’ He thought. If they accept him and we mesh well, great. If not, it’ll be a case of thank you very much and goodbye. No problem. 

Two trains and some rushing and walking later, He arrived. Evelyn and a bunch of people were already there so He greeted everyone. We were all standing in a circle and about three minutes later Cindy appeared, breaking into the circle right opposite him.

She stepped forward to give Evelyn a hug, then stepped back again into that spot right in front of him.

Now we stood facing each other.

And then he looked at her and she looked at him.

The second he laid eyes on her, there were both taken somewhere high up into the sky. 

He completely lost himself in her eyes. 

He had never, ever experienced anything like this before, never. 

Cindy was similarly entrenched. His eyes they were so bright, they just kept her there.

Gerard had thought to himself She had her head tilted to one side and looked utterly charming. She seemed to be in her own little world. He didn’t know if she was blonde or tall or short or anything else, but he felt her energetic presence very intensely. He was completely engulfed in it. 

He don’t know how long that flight lasted, one or two or three seconds, but we both went all the way up into the sky.

Cindy felt it longer than three seconds.

Gerard was like a lifetime rolled into three seconds and a whole lifetime to look into her soul but in actual earth-time, it probably was only three seconds.

Cindy feeling of instant recognition was overwhelming. Something in her was saying, “That’s him!”

Gerard too had a feeling that they had met before. It was like the emotional sensation of bingo! He’s not the Don Juan type. He’s not into flirting and trying. He concise and to the point both on the outside and within and this was a moment of pure clarity for him.

Cindy had thought to herself, there was a short introduction but She couldn’t remember anyone else’s name, She just remembered Gerard’s. Suddenly there was a shift and they all started walking and then, just like that, they found their self next to each other.

Gerard look to his right and there she is. Normally he don’t care for superficial conversations, “Oh hello, I am Gerard, I come from Lebanon…” Don’t give me that stuff!  

Cindy too dislike smalltalk. It’s something She is not very good at. It can’t shed light on what makes a person who they are, what they have done, what they have lived through, what was it that shaped them. So what She asked Gerard was, “What brought you here?”

That literally was the question, “What brought you here?”

They were in front of a mall called the Galleria at this point, a popular spot in Tbilisi. It takes a few minutes to walk from there to Dunkin’ Donuts, which they needed to go past for the photo walk. During those few minutes between those two points, in response to Cindy’s question, Gerard told Cindy his whole story why he turned against the system, why he left the system, why he left Lebanon in search of his soul, what he found and what his dreams for his future were.

Cindy’s question had triggered a concise summary of everything he was and everything that he stood for and his whole life had been laid out in front of her in one organic flow of words in mere minutes. 

When he was done, she just stood there staring, silent. he said, “Are you stunned or surprised?”

She just said, “Wow.” She seemed to be very deep in thought.