The Last Person I Loved - 03

200 Messages Were Never Enough

Our conversations had now become a part of my daily routine.
Every morning started with her message.
Every night ended with it.
At that time, smartphones were still becoming common, and I was still using a keypad phone. Typing long messages on those tiny buttons was honestly painful, but somehow, when it came to her, I never felt tired.
She had a recharge plan that gave her 200 free SMS daily.
And surprisingly…
Even 200 messages weren’t enough for us.
Sometimes we would message so much that suddenly one of us would stop replying, and the other person already knew the reason.
“Recharge over?”
“Hmm 😂”
That became normal between us.
Slowly, our conversations started going beyond office talks.
We talked about family. Childhood memories. Future plans. Likes and dislikes.
She would tell me stories about her two dogs — one Dalmatian and one desi breed. Sometimes she would send their pictures through MMS, and I would wait forever for the image to download properly on my old phone.
I still remember smiling like an idiot while looking at those blurry pictures.
That was the phase where I slowly started getting attached to her.
Not because of her looks.
But because I genuinely liked talking to her.
I liked her confidence. Her bold nature. The way she handled situations. The way she could make even a normal conversation feel special.
And somewhere in between all those messages…
We had become important to each other.
After getting my first salary of 6,000 rupees, I made one big decision.
I borrowed 4,000 rupees from my father and bought my first smartphone.
Honestly, buying a smartphone at that time felt like a huge achievement for me. The first thing I installed after bringing it home was WhatsApp.
And yes…
That’s when our real chatting journey started.
Now messages became faster. Longer. More frequent.
We would talk till late night — sometimes till 12 or even 1 AM — and then continue again the next morning with a simple:
“Good morning 😊”
It sounds small now.
But back then, those messages meant a lot to me.
Office timing was 9 AM to 7 PM.
Since she was the admin, she had the office keys and used to open the office every morning. I liked reaching early because I preferred planning my work before everyone arrived.
So every morning, I would reach before 9 and wait in the parking lot for the office to open.
Initially, she used to arrive exactly around 9 or 9:05.
But slowly…
She started coming earlier.
And day by day, our morning conversations in the parking lot became longer.
Sometimes we talked about work. Sometimes about family. Sometimes about absolutely nothing.
Yet somehow, those small moments became the best part of my mornings.
And the funny thing was…
Even after all this time, we still hadn’t officially said anything about being in a relationship.
But somewhere deep inside…
Both of us already knew.