Lights, Camera, Date Night!

Devanshi Mungse

When it comes to dating, I’m your typical old-school teenager who prefers
traditional dating norms ; nice candlelight dinner, movie-night in, walk by the shorestu like that. A date via a video call is certainly not traditional, yet here I am standing in front of my closet, thinking “ What does one wear to a dinner date over a skype call? ” After what seems like an eternity of trying out various outfits and going from series of - “Does this top go with these jeans?”, “Do I look fat ?” , “Will he think I’m overdressed?” to “Chuck it! If he likes me for me then it won’t matter much to him….probably” , I finally settle on the little black dress (always works). To add a little bling, I wear the diamond necklace that my mom got me for my 18th birthday along with the matching diamond earrings, some mascara, a red lip and Voila! I’m ready for virtual date night!

It’s 7:54 pm, I’m sitting in front of my laptop screen, waiting for him to call. Our date night is supposed to begin at 8:00 pm, so he’s going to call any minute now. In the past hour, besides getting dressed, I’ve decorated my dinning room with the fairy lights I got for Christmas, I’ve set up the table with my mom’s ‘only-reserved-for when-we-have-guests-over’ dining set and I’ve got our most trusted ‘just-add-hotwater- to-it’ cup noodles since I didn’t have time to cook (actually I don’t know how to cook). I wonder if he knows how to cook….. My train of thoughts is interrupted by the ringing on my laptop which tells me that I have an incoming skype call from him and he’s right on time. I take a minute to compose myself and make sure that I’m connected to the wi-fi before answering the call. The minute I answer the call I’m greeted by the world’s most radiant smile ever, the kind that just lights up the whole room. After exchanging pleasantries and him complimenting on how great I look, he tells me “ I know that this isn’t your ideal date but I had to see you and I sure as hell wasn’t going to miss our date night considering it is still just our third date since we started dating and first ever virtual date so let me make this evening extremely special for you, my lady” And just like that, I was ecstatic! Through out the evening we talked about everything; right from our childhood to what we wanted to do in life and every time either of us shared a funny story, we’d drink coke ( since neither of us had alcohol at home). It’s 9:45 now and both of us are done eating ( He made pasta…..turns out he does know how to cook) and we’re just staring at each other now, he pulls out his phone and starts fidgeting with it. Just as I’m about to call him out for using his phone on date night, my phone beeps, it’s a text from him. He asks me to play the song mentioned in the text and I do so. On the other side of the screen he pulls his hand out and says “May I have this dance?” I agree and then both of us lift our laptops and start swaying to the song as if we were actually in each other’s arms and in this moment I don’t care how ridiculous I must look, I’m just happy and I never want this moment to end.

As the song comes to an end, we’re just staring into each other’s eyes, neither of us wanting to break the moment and the way that he is looking into my eyes it seems as though to him I am the most precious thing in the world, such adoration and staring into his eyes, it’s like looking into a rainbow, just so much vibrance. His eyes, his smile, his nerdiness…….just everything about him is just so precious and delicate and I would never trade him for anything in this whole universe. And in this moment I know that I am in love with him and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Few minutes after the song ends we decide to end the date, I give him a flying kiss which he attempts to catch in a freakishly- corny-Bollywood way and then end the call. It’s 11:00 pm I’m in my pajamas lying in bed wondering of how skeptical I was while agreeing to this virtual date and mentally slapping myself for all the times I had second thoughts about this but after actually have been through it I now realize that this connection that I feel with him now is so much stronger than what we had before (and this is minusing my whole “I am in love with him” revelation). This virtual date has made him open up to me on a whole another level. I feel closer to him more
than ever. I see him now, not just who he wants me to see but also who he really is, beneath all those burdens from society. I am in love with him and it wouldn’t have happened without this virtual date. And if he feels the same way too then this Virtual date might actually be my happily ever after…..