• It has been one year, one month, and fifteen days since we first met,
    when you were being harassed by people online,
    and our mutual friend brought it up to me,
    and naturally I apologised for the shitty hate messages.

    It has been one year and twelve days since we joined the same Skype group,
    and began to talk on a regular basis,
    both on camera and in the chat,
    and I began to wonder if I had a crush on you or not.

    It has been eleven months and four days since I first spoke to you outside of the group chat,
    and I found it was not as intimidating as I thought it would be.

    It has been ten months and twenty three days since I left for vacation for a week,
    to enjoy the bright Honduras sun and pina coladas,
    and spent the whole time missing you,
    counting the days until I was home and could talk to you again.

    It has been nine months and two days since I first realised I might love you.

    It has been eight months and nineteen days since I told my best friend that I was in love,
    and since she told me that I should let you go because you're too far,
    that my love was silly because you weren't here,
    and you were enamored by someone else.

    It has been eight months and fourteen days since I went to stay with my aunt,
    and I was able to speak to you more often than before,
    since we were both on summer vacation,
    and I wasn't having to wait until I was home alone to chat.

    It has been seven months and six days since I listened to you cry about the girl you loved,
    who was playing with your heart and didn't care about you,
    listened to you pray that you would find someone who cared about you,
    and thought that maybe I could be that girl.

    It has been seven months since she left for college,
    and left you to find the pieces of your heart,
    and left me to put them back together.

    It has been five months and twenty two days since I decided that it would be best for us,
    better for our relationship,
    if I just remained your friend,
    because I couldn't bear to risk losing you as a friend.

    It has been four months and ten days since my friends encouraged me to just ask you out,
    and I told them what I'd been telling myself,
    that we were better off as friends,
    and that you didn't like me anyways,
    so there was no point in trying.

    It has been three months and seven days since I drunkenly told you that I loved you,
    three months and seven days since you told me you felt the same.

    It has been three months and six days since I woke up,
    hungover, embarrassed, nervous,
    and avoided the things I'd said as we made conversation,
    talked until there was nothing left to do but confront what we'd said,
    and realised that we were both hiding our feelings for the same reason.

    It has been two months and twenty days since we had our first date,
    where we watched a movie with a screen share program,
    and when you told me that you'd be able to visit come the next summer.

    It has been two months and nine days since we said "I love you",
    and I told my friend that we were dating,
    and she told me that she'd known for months,
    even though it had barely been one,
    and we laughed at how stupid we'd been for so long.

    It has been one month and seventeen days since we left the honeymoon period,
    and we've been doing just fine.

    It has been twelve days since you confirmed when you'll be coming for the summer,
    and we've been excitedly planning out dates,
    and getting ready to make up for lost time.

    It has been less than a minute since I last thought about how lucky I am to have you,
    that fate aligned just right for us to meet and fall in love,
    and that I love you for all your flaws and imperfections,
    and that I can't wait to see what the future holds.