"If we don't find a partner by 30, we'll get married"

the usual childhood promise you made to your friend in college. No wonder, right?

Well, if so. Time passed, you both changed, drifted away from each other until you completely lost communication. But something still lived in the heart, made me remember all the time spent together from elementary school to college with a smile on my face. You remembered, even if he had long forgotten about everything that happened between you.

Hot summer morning. You returned from the store to your parents, visiting them on the first days of vacation. With your peripheral vision, you saw something damn familiar, heard a voice you hadn't expected to hear in years.

He was standing with one of his acquaintances, as if he had gone into town on business and was not going to stay here longer than the circumstances required. The heart fluttered, but not a trace remained of the gift of speech. The eyes of a boy, already a man, directed at you with an expression that was impossible to read. A mixture of curiosity, surprise and disbelief.