Prologue: The Wedding Invitation
Wednesdays in Berlin had become my ritual of quiet victories.A cappuccino from the corner café — still too hot to drink — while I wandered past cobblestone streets. A long morning walk with my Leica, chasing light across old buildings, empty benches, and strangers lost in thought. Then home, to my sunlit apartment, where floor-to-ceiling windows overlooked Kreuzberg’s crooked skyline.The walls were lined with framed magazine covers.Every one had my name printed in small letters beneath bold headlines.It was the life I used to doodle in the margins of my school notebooks — a boy with a second-hand camera and too many feelings he didn’t know how to hold.Now, at twenty-eight, I had caught up with that dream.Booked-out exhibitions. Global travel gigs. My photos in National Geographic Traveler, Condé Nast, and a TEDx talk where I rambled something poetic about “seeing silence through a lens.“I wasn’t famous. But I was free.And I was happy.
That morning, I had been editing a portrait from Seville — a flamenco dancer mid-spin, her lace skirt suspended between passion and gravity — when a soft knock cut through the jazz playing in the background.
I frowned. I wasn’t expecting anyone.When I opened the door, the hallway was empty. Just winter air slipping through a cracked window.And on the floor — one envelope.No courier stamp. No branding.Just my full name: Chaitanya A. Deshmukh.Handwritten in soft blue ink I hadn’t seen in years.I stood there for a second. Then closed the door, sat on the couch, and turned the envelope in my hands like it might dissolve if I moved too quickly.It didn’t.
Inside was a wedding invitation — thick cream paper, bordered in gold thread. It smelled faintly of sandalwood, like the old letter boxes my mother used to store jewelry and secrets.
I unfolded it slowly.
Sakshi Sharma & Rohan Mehrotra
...cordially invite you to celebrate...
That’s where my eyes stopped.
I didn’t notice the venue.Or the date.Or the luxury hotel logo printed at the corner.All I saw was her name.The name I hadn’t said out loud in twelve years.The name I still heard in songs I claimed didn’t affect me anymore.The room shifted. Or maybe it was just my chest — tightening in a way I hadn’t felt in a long time.Then, something else slid out from behind the card. A photograph. Faded. Corners bent. Like someone had kept it hidden for years.And just like that — I was sixteen again.
It was a group photo from our final year in school.
Some stupid celebration day when everything had felt infinite.There we were — the whole gang.Hrushi. Sanika. Jay. Shiraj. Vaibhav. Khushi. Kartavya.And Sakshi, in the center — eyes closed, laughing mid-sentence, hand caught mid-gesture like she had just said something outrageous.Beside her... was me.Half-smiling. Hair a complete mess. My first DSLR hanging from my neck like a charm.We looked untouched by heartbreak.By distance.By time.I placed the photo on the table — carefully, like it might crack from memory.And then I saw it. One last thing in the envelope.A letter.Torn from a spiral notebook. Folded with care — the kind that only comes from hesitation.And written in a handwriting I knew by heart — the slanted, messy scrawl I used to tease her about during math class.I unfolded it slowly.And read it.
Once.Twice.A third time — slower, like the words might disappear if I blinked.My apartment, once filled with jazz and winter sun, felt too still.Like the letter had placed its hand over a wound I thought had healed.I looked at the photo again.All of us, frozen in sunlight.I had everything now.The freedom. The passport stamps. The money. The respect.But in that moment —Alone in Berlin, fingers trembling around a name I hadn’t spoken in years —I felt like that seventeen-year-old boy again.The one who loved too quietly.And lost too often.And that’s when it hit me.Not loud.Not poetic.Just... honest:Maybe it’s time I finally told my side of the story.The one no one ever asked for.The one with the half-said feelings, unsent messages, and monsoon-crushes that vanished like fog.Not a story of forever.But a story of everything in between.Of the boy who kept falling in love.And kept learning how to let go.---The thing about memories is...They don’t fade.They wait.In songs you skip.In corners you stop cleaning.In photographs you forgot you printed.And sometimes — in wedding invitations on quiet Wednesdays in Berlin.---That night, I couldn’t sleep.The city was quiet. The radiator hummed. But my mind — it was loud.I made myself mint tea, sat by the window, and opened an old notebook I hadn’t touched in years.The leather one — the one Sakshi gifted me during Diwali, when we swore we’d write in it every evening (we didn’t).Most of its pages were still blank.But not for long.I wrote one sentence:“This is the story of every time I thought it was love.“And then I kept writing — not for an editor.Not for an audience.Not for closure.But for me.For the boy I used to be.---So if you’re reading this —This is where it begins.Not with Berlin.Not even with Sakshi.Not with heartbreak.But with me.Back when I was sixteen.When love felt like a movie scene — out of focus, a little too loud, and completely impossible.I still remember how it all started.Watch him — the boy I used to be — from a distance.Let’s begin there.
A/N:Thank you so much for reading the prologue! This is just the beginning.The first chapter — where the past unfolds — is coming soon.Let me know in the comments:Have you ever had a love that didn’t last... but never really left you?
