Romance and physics just do not go well together. One is hardly predictable, another demands it. The laws of physics say that every action will always have an equal and opposite reaction. This means that if one bouquet of flowers makes you smile today, for each and every time I give you that bouquet, you should be smiling.
But anyone familiar with the laws of romance would say that is nonsense. I realized this on the 1st of December when she was not just smiling. She was…silent! For reasons that cannot be elaborated for fear of pain or death, you would simply be incapable of associating her with silence, if you really knew her. But that day, when she opened the door, she was! Smiles curving up her lips as reality slowly sunk in, she really was. Hardly predictable. Hardly physics.
It could not have been physics. Facing the full force of that reality- that we were finally seeing each other after a two month absence- the only thing we did was to stop and stare, in absolute contradiction to the law that when force meets matter, movement quickens. The laws of physics- they just do not work.
But maybe it’s biochemistry. Relationships act as if they involve some knowledge of chemistry. Somehow, kids know exactly the temperature by which their parents’ blood boil. Somehow, the sheer thought of surprising her, made my runs go a little bit faster. Just like steroids. And just recalling the moments in which we burst out laughing unglamorously in the middle of a road junction, amidst a bewildered crowd, brings a wave of euphoria as inexplicable as the feeling you get after an intensive workout. Just like chocolates at Max Brenner’s.
Speaking of highs, one of the memorabilia from Melbourne is this bottle of Moscato- a wine that was actually made sweeter by the thought of not having to take an earlier flight out of Melbourne, to don on the ridiculous green and black to fight enemies so powerful they can fly and land on you with catastrophic itches. It could be all chemistry. Even the itches.
At the end of the day- a fresh supply of “lau sa pao”s greeting me every morning, with daily doses of episodes from Big Bang Theory, a trip down to the beach and topping it off with a voice that ranks among the greatness of Celine Dion, Delta Goodrem and the like one karaoke evening- I really was the one taken in for a treat. Neither of which predicted, all of which thoroughly loved and enjoyed. But what I loved most is the mornings: it is the promise of a day spent with a loved one.
Science leaves too little room for something different and is incredibly pessimistic, neither of which Romance approves of. Looking back, there could very well have been significance to that wrongly labeled arrow. It is a refusal to be subject to that sad notion that everything that goes up must come down, and a rejection of that grim reality that one way or another, gravity brings us all back to earth. I went to Melbourne to defy such conventions. I went to surprise.