Walking back from my date with Carmen, I felt different. Lighter, maybe. Like something had shifted in me.
It wasn’t anything dramatic, just a quiet sense that I may have actually turned a corner.
For so long, I had been focused on work, on fixing up the house, on keeping busy. Tonight, I remembered what it felt like to simply enjoy another person’s company.
I had been nervous going in. Blind dates aren’t exactly my thing, and I wasn’t sure I was ready for one.
But Rosa had insisted.
She said I needed to get out more, to stop treating life like another project to be managed.
She had a point.
My world had become small, mostly just me, my tools, and the mountains and my thoughts. Carmen was easy to talk to. There was no awkwardness, no forced conversation.
She carried herself with a confidence that put me at ease. We talked about life here in Las Alpujarras, about the differences between city life and rural life. I told her why I came here, how I needed something slower, something real.
She understood.
She had left the city too, and she knew what it was like to search for something more grounded.
We laughed about the quirks of small-town life—the way everyone knows your business before you do, how the shopkeepers notice when you change your routine. It felt good to talk about these things with someone who understood. I hadn’t realised how much I missed real conversation, the kind that goes beyond the usual pleasantries. And she’s a bonny lass.
When the night came to an end, I felt something I hadn’t in a long time.
Hopeful.
Not purely about dating, but about everything else in my life. I’d been so focused on settling into life here that I hadn’t let myself enjoy it. Tonight, I did.
And I wanted more of that.
As I walked through the quiet streets, I thought about what this meant.
Maybe Rosa was right. Maybe I had been too closed off, too set in my routine. Maybe it was time to start letting people in again. It certainly felt good tonight i have to admit.
I don’t know what or anything will come of this.
Maybe Carmen and I will see each other again. Maybe we won’t. (I hope so). But either way, I’ve realised something important. Life isn’t about surviving, about making things work.
It’s about connection. About having people to share it with.
As I reached my little old house, I looked up at the night sky. The stars were bright, the air was cool, and for the first time in a long while, I felt like something might just be happening…