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Intimacy isn’t loud. It sneaks up on you.
I Didn’t Love These Women — But These Innocent Moments Felt More Intimate Than Sex
These tiny gestures shook me more than any kiss, and no one prepares you for that.
It was one of those evenings, wedged between friends’ weddings, in Delhi. The fragrant air, dusty, decaying, leaves or blossoms were marigold and kerosene. I was awkwardly fiddling with my shirt when she came to me, making no real sound, just correcting my collar with gentle tenderness.
She gently brushed my neck with her fingers for not even a second, and I stopped breathing. It was not even five seconds, but I swear it made everything different between us.
There are indelible moments that jump up at you. They are pure, perfectly innocent moments. They involve no words exchanged. No declarations, several promises nothing, forever.
Yet they sit there on your memory like a whisper on your skin. And sometimes they are so new, so intimate it might feel like something holy has transpired between you.
Over the years, I’ve come to learn that intimacy does not always arrive as a grand gesture or a candlelit declaration. Sometimes intimacy arrives by an offhand glance.
