You said to me once that your love couldn’t last because you fell in love on holiday, in a beautiful but transient place, where you were both so very happy.

But for the first time, I have come to realise that you were wrong. You don’t want to fall in love in your daily life. The dull quotidian routine wears you down and all you do is dream of escaping. You don’t want to fall in love because you keep thinking that you are about to leave, so what’s the point of getting closer to someone if you’ll be gone the next moment.

The reality is that you’ll probably spend the rest of your life doing that same job, living in that same place. And maybe, at the end, when you are old and have time to reflect, you will realise that you should have brought that person back and cherished her love. A beautiful, exotic shell to brighten up your life, a happy reminder of a special time. And maybe, just maybe she would have inspired you to reach for more.