hi

They shook hands… looking into each others eyes
Holding the gaze, they let the whole of ‘what all these years meant’, hit them.
Searching involuntarily for the oh-so-familiar glint

They knew each other….
Days of waking up all night, lost in thought, drowned in conversation, afloat in ‘things to do’, wide awake in dreams and comforted in company.
When they nurtured ambition with the fire in their hearts…
Times of doubt and uncertainty… also of, will and hope.
When each inconsistency robbed their sleep
When each failure triggered a tedious process of going back to basics and re-tracing each step on the way, in search of ‘where did I falter’

They saw each other survive those nights
It wasn’t pretty, but beautiful, yes.

When,
They talked as much as they did not.
They shared as much as they took for granted.

Those were the days…
When they weren’t what they could and would be, yet.
They were witness to the process … the ‘how’ of what became of them today
They both were, works in progress.

All that was years ago…
Years passed by…
Updates were shared occasionally… but not the processes.
They were abreast with the ‘what’s, not the ‘how’s.

Letting go of each others hands, they wondered…
Did ‘us’ still hold good?
Did they still ‘know’ each other?
What did the so-slight-you wouldn’t notice- extra firmness in the handshake betray?
a desire for assurance of the above in affirmative?

They hung their coats, put their briefcases aside and settled down for a cup of coffee.