The Bittersweet Dark Chocolate

"Happy birthday," I wished her as I gave her a small, lightly decorated, cardboard box which had her name written on it.

"Thank you!" she gleamed and gave me a hug as she accepted the present. "May I open it now?"
I shrugged, slightly embarrassed, and avoided her shining eyes. "Go ahead. It's yours."

She carefully lifted the casing to reveal a beautifully wrapped bar of dark chocolate which had the words "Zawsze w milosci" printed on the front. She took it out and examined the gift from all angles, but aside from that phrase, which was written in some foreign language, and the fact that it was a bar of dark chocolate, she could gather no more information about it. She must've known that I was not the type of person to do something for no reason, and so she asked me, clearly puzzled, "Why the dark chocolate?"

I smiled and looked at her. Her beautiful brown eyes were looking intently back into mine-- and as we stared into each other, our brains processing every minute detail of our faces, we both started to smile-- smiles that were so radiant they could brighten up the whole room... and deep down I somehow knew that she understood what my gift meant but, still, she waited for me to say something.

...
Dark chocolate. It symbolises the bittersweet love I have for you. For all the nights we spent talking under the starlit sky, for all the experiences we shared together... you were my first love, and I know, from personal experience, the saying to be true: we will never be able to forget the first loves in our lives; I will never be able to forget you.

Was it really love that I was in? It must've been, for I suffered all the symptoms love-struck people seem to suffer from. Maybe the gift I got for you was my way of saying goodbye, and that I shouldn't try to prolong my self-torture any longer, and that it was time for me to move on with my life and keep the past in the past just like you have done... but at the same time I could never really let go-- the gift also symbolises my selfishness, my hopes that we could still be as close as ever and never change despite Father Time ticking away. A part of me wants you to tell me to stay away, that you were disgusted with a being like me and then maybe I could finally give up, but another part wants you to tell me to stay, and I didn't mind being chained to the past forever even if everyone else said that I shouldn't. My infatuation was just like the bittersweet dark chocolate, but far more bitter than sweet.
...

"I thought you might like it," I told her simply and winked, changing the mood of the conversation instantly. Just then, her boyfriend came and told her it was about time they were planning to cut the cake. He excused himself and took her hand as I watched them go off amid the cheering of our friends and soon they were blocked from my view. No, there was no way I could've said what I really wanted to say. I drank another glass of grape juice, and started to cheer for them too. I wished the two of them the best. I honestly did. I honestly wished I did.