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As I looked around the misty bar in Barcelona last February, I noticed a man with beautiful brown hair and a beard.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I was with my friends and he was alone when I suddenly realised something. Every girl in that bar was distracted, throwing quick glances and flirtatious smiles to theman. His silent confidence had us all captivated.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As the night progressed, he seamlessly migrated around the room while dancing and joining new circles of people. In a haze of tequila and Romeo Santos songs, the beautiful man ended up right next to me, dancing with my circle of friends.\u00a0<\/p>\n
One by one, he introduced himself to my friends, saving me for last. \u2018My name is Rodrigo*,\u2019 he whispered to me in Spanish, holding one side of my face with his hands and leaning into the other to speak.<\/p>\n
\u2018Mucho gusto\u2019\u00a0<\/em>I responded, pulling back and trying to play it cool.\u00a0<\/p>\n But the minute our eyes met, my stomach tingled with butterflies and I knew that my efforts to resist him were in vain.\u00a0<\/p>\n A couple of minutes after dancing with all of us, Rodrigo broke the circle and turned to face me. His hands cupped my face and staring into my eyes, he slowly brought our foreheads to touch. I moved closer to his chest and matched the right and left sway of his hips to the bachata beat.\u00a0<\/p>\n Without thinking twice, I slightly parted our foreheads so our lips could meet.\u00a0<\/p>\n For hours, I ruminated in his oh-so European cologne and soft lips. When the clock struck 4am, the bartenders ushered Rodrigo, my friends, and I onto the dawn-lit streets of Barcelona.\u00a0<\/p>\n Rodrigo turned to me and pulled out his phone, open to a blank contact page.<\/p>\n \u2018Actually\u2026 wanna come back with me?\u2019 I said with a cheeky smile.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2018Sure, but no pressure. I\u2019m around for you any time,\u2019 Rodrigo said, his Portuguese accent peeking through. Smiling, I reached for his hand and gave it a quick tight squeeze and didn\u2019t let go till we made it back to mine.\u00a0<\/p>\n For the rest of the morning, in my broken Spanish and his broken English, we giggled and shared about our interests, families, and favourite Barcelona spots till I had to head to class.\u00a0<\/p>\n This is where I learned that Rodrigo was only in Barcelona for a week, visiting from Portugal, and I told him that I was here for a few months while studying abroad from New York.\u00a0<\/p>\n Considering the distance and cultural gaps, it was clear to us both that there was no serious future for us.<\/p>\n But, neither of us minded that. It was implied that all we had together was the present, so we\u00a0decided to spend\u00a0the week together.\u00a0<\/p>\n Rodrigo showered me with affection and showed up for me in ways my lovers accustomed to college-hookup culture\u2019s bare minimum could never deliver.<\/p>\n Previously, I had never\u00a0even\u00a0been taken out on a date. All my romantic interactions happened in a sweaty frat basement or on a dating app, and rarely did we ever talk about anything deep.\u00a0<\/p>\n Yet even with our language barrier, Rodrigo and I still managed meaningful conversations.<\/p>\n One morning, after our first passionate night together, Rodrigo pulled up a video on YouTube, \u2018What It\u2019s Like to Date a Portuguese Guy\u2019.\u00a0<\/em>It was endearing how much Rodrigo wanted to help me understand where he came from.\u00a0<\/p>\n As I was listening to the narrator talk about how romantic Portuguese men were, and Rodrigo finger was tracing the small of my back, I turned to him, beaming and let a \u2018te quiero\u2019 roll off my lips.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2018Pranjal, te quiero means I love you\u2026 I don\u2019t think that\u2019s what you mean,\u2019 Rodrigo softly corrected \u2013 and he was right.\u00a0<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t what I meant at all. In my high school Spanish class, I learned that the verb querer means \u2018like\u2019, so I thought I was very casually telling Rodrigo that I liked him.<\/p>\n My stomach plummeted, kicking in a watered-down fight or flight response. I didn\u2019t want Rodrigo to think that I was crazy and had fallen in love after just a few days of knowing him. I wanted my \u2018I love yous\u2019 to be more exclusive and earned.<\/p>\n Not doled out to random men I met at bars.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2018Pero te quiero tambien\u2019 \u2013 but I love you too\u00a0\u2013\u00a0<\/em>Rodrigo continued a split second later with a reassuring kiss on my forehead.<\/p>\n A smile washed over my face, and warmth flooded my body. I know Rodrigo didn\u2019t mean I love you in the mystical, star-crossed way love is often described, but it felt like he was\u00a0saving me\u00a0from hurt.\u00a0<\/p>\n By loving me \u2013 even in an ephemeral way \u2013 Rodrigo unlocked the part of myself that guarded love. He taught me that romantic love doesn\u2019t need to be gatekept, and saying\u00a0\u2018I love you\u2019\u00a0doesn\u2019t need to be a behemoth task.<\/p>\n Rodrigo and I didn\u2019t get to officially say goodbye because of a surprise exam that I begrudgingly spent the end of my week studying for. Yet, we stayed in touch, swiping up on each other\u2019s Instagram stories and occasionally sending cute \u2018te extra\u00f1o\u2019\u00a0\u2013 \u2018I miss you\u2019 \u2013\u00a0texts for my remaining months in Barcelona.\u00a0<\/p>\n It was when I was on the flight back to New York, waiting for takeoff that I was struck with cinematic flashbacks of him. Emboldened with Google Translate, I sent him a long goodbye text, telling him how nice it was to meet him and to learn how to love from him.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2018I\u2019ll miss you a lot, beautiful\u2019 he responded.\u00a0<\/p>\n Platform is the home of Metro.co.uk’s first-person and opinion pieces, devoted to giving a platform to underheard and underrepresented voices in the media. <\/strong><\/p>\n Find some of our best reads of the week below:<\/p>\n Linda Aitchison was terrified when her doctor suspected cancer following some worrying symptoms. The writer was filled with relief when it transpired to be her long-forgotten 15-year-old coil. <\/p>\n Metro.co.uk’s Alicia Adejobi slammed Kanye West and shared how she felt humiliation and sadness for his ‘wife’ Bianca Censori after seeing her outfits in Italy. <\/p>\n An anonymous writer explains how, after never having the best relationship with his father, he gave his dad a second chance by allowing him to be an active grandparent. Something his father has taken for granted. <\/p>\n And Shane Harding retells the story of how she met her soulmate Mert on holiday in Turkey. Mert travelled 300 miles and spent \u00a3400 on a taxi just to make their first date. <\/p>\n From his recent hard launch on Instagram, Rodrigo is now happily seeing someone. We both stopped talking when I returned to my college campus, but the week I spent with Rodrigo is forever ingrained into my subconscious.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n In fact, for that last year of university, I didn\u2019t go on a single date because no one came close to the standard Rodrigo set for me. I would rather have no one than someone who can\u2019t match my newfound definition and capacity of love.\u00a0<\/p>\n But, I\u2019m hopeful. <\/p>\n Next week, I\u2019m moving to London, and \u2013 after a year of penance \u2013 I\u2019m convinced that a boyfriend is waiting for me across the pond.<\/p>\n Thanks to my time with Rodrigo,\u00a0I am confident that I will now only accept romance that overwhelms me with love \u2013 even if it\u2019s uttered whimsically after a date or two.<\/p>\n *Names has been changed <\/p>\n So, How Did It Go? is a weekly\u00a0Metro.co.uk\u00a0series that will make you cringe with second-hand embarrassment or ooze with jealousy as people share their worst and best date stories.<\/p>\n Want to spill the beans about your own awkward encounter or love story? Contact jess.austin@metro.co.uk<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/wp-content\/themes\/metro-parent\/img\/fallback.png\")
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