The Calm after the Storm

It has a been a couple days since the tube bombings, and we had to get back to normal. We had our final project and it went great. Aaron delivered our closing statement beautifully. As he was standing up there in his suit with a look of utter business on his face, I could not help but think to myself "that man up there is mine!" As I said this i must have had a huge smile on my face, because his eyes met mine and I could swear that I saw him blushing.

Since the bombings the classes had been held in a building on the campus where our flats were. We had not been on the tube since that day. While some stations were closed, a lot had re-opened.

We had all decided that it was time to venture into the tube once again. Just the idea of going on it again sent sheer panic through my veins. I was not ready to face that again, but I knew that I had to. We had made reservations at a medieval banquet and were pumped to go. When the time came, we ventured out towards the tube station near our flat.

We walked down the steps. The steps we had walked up and down hundreds of times. We neared the first corner and swiped our cards. I could feel my palms begin to sweat. I was about to turn to Aaron who was holding my hand and tell him I was not ready, but he beat me to it. He looked down at me and whispered, "you're okay, I'm here."

I took a deep breath gave his hand a squeeze and continued. We made it onto the cart. A cart that would be usually bustling with people going in and out. A cart that was eerily empty. There were some people on it and everyone seemed to be extra vigilant.

I remember seeing a man with a backpack. He reached into it. All eyes were on him. He pulled out a bottled water. There was a collective sigh of relief.

We finally made it out of the tube and onto our desired destination. I had made it.

We reached the restaurant and enjoyed the rest of our evening. It was full of laughter, wine, and beer. We were all relaxing and enjoying our last couple days in London.

After a great dinner a many too many drinks we made our trek back to the flat. The ride going home was not as hard as the one before.

Once back at the flat Aaron and I headed back to my room. This had become a habit. We slept in his room or mine. But had not slept apart in almost a month. With a couple days left in London the reality of our situation began to set in. What would happen once we left the world we had developed here? Would we survive once we got back to the states?

We laid in bed and talked for hours that night. We did not know what the future had in store for us, but we did know that we wanted to try to make it work back home. We actually only lived about 5 minutes apart and would be sharing lots of classes once we got back. Would the live we had created here make it across the ocean?

I fell asleep after making love and knew that what would happen was what was meant to happen. All we could do for now is enjoy what we had.