Numbered Love
Author: Maysam Yabandeh
Publisher: Maysam Yabandeh
Release Date: March 1, 2025
Genre: Romance/Fantasy, short story
Snippet:
Stroking his patchy beard, Professor Nam Nguyen nervously paces on the Story Bridge. This is a low-maintenance beard that says, ‘I don’t give a damn about my looks.’ Why would he? Messing with your looks is for frivolous people who waste their time chasing girls: spending three hours a week waiting in line at the barbershop for a Ryan Gosling haircut, two hours a day lifting weights so that the dating muscles pop out, and chugging down daily doses of poisonous protein shakes that sooner or later will give you constipation—if not man boobs. Everybody knows this, yet everybody wastes his life with the same pointless routine. Everybody except for Nam. He didn’t have to. When your destiny is to end up with the most perfect girl in the world, who in their right mind would waste their time on random girls? And when love is as pure and platonic as what awaits Nam, the least important factor is looks.
Nam takes another look at his watch: 11:50 p.m. Where is she? Perhaps his watch is running fast. He turns around and finds the big clock on the tower overlooking the bridge. 11:50 too. The time is right. The date is right too. Monday, April 10. Thirty years ago, on this day, that bald Buddhist monk in Eden Park promised Nam and Livia that they would meet again here on this bridge, and when at midnight the second-hand jumps from 59 to 0 they would fall in love all over again. And this time, they will never be separated. This time, their love will last forever.
They believed the monk back then. From the bottom of their hearts, they believed that their wish for unification would come true. They actually thought the Buddhist monk was a genie robed in saffron. Ha. What did they know? They were only five, after all. True or false, that belief made Nam’s unbearable separation from Livia less painful. After all, isn’t that the main objective of faith? When his family was deported back to Vietnam, Nam didn’t cry. Because he believed with all his heart that thirty years later he would return to the United States of America to be reunited with his American crush. And this time, their love would last forever.
Nam puts another piece of mint gum into his mouth, partly to calm his nerves and partly to freshen his breath for the romantic kiss if when Livia shows up. This is perhaps the coldest April Nam has experienced. The calendar promises spring, but the climate dictates winter. Nam blows his warm breath into his cold hands and then slips his hands into the pockets of his jacket. He feels the comb in his pocket. Has he combed his hair? He has, perhaps more than a hundred times. But it couldn’t hurt to be sure. He takes out the comb and runs it through his comb-over. Not that it matters, but it’s nice to look nice for your eternal love.
His late dad had also carried one of these cheap plastic combs and used to run it through his hair before Sunday Mass began. “Uncle Jesus sees us from above,” he would tell baby Nam, pointing to the decorated ceiling of the chapel. His hardcore Christian parents later became Buddhists on the first week they arrived in Hue and afterwards devout Taoists when they moved to Hanoi. Nam didn’t mind their flip-flopping in religion though. All he needed was a vessel of faith to pray and remember Livia’s mint scent when they would hold hands and pray together in their favorite spot—the middle of the third row of the Chapel of Holy Cross. With his eyes shut, Nam would see nothing but Livia’s face, her wavy hair, and her furrowed eyebrows in that timeless moment when she stood up to Jack, the racist, good-for-nothing jackass who had shoved Nam to the ground and sneered, ‘Go home, monkey.’ Then, her kind, welcoming smile as she extended her hand to Nam, and her brown face filling the blue sky with its missing color. Churches, pagodas, wats, miaos, and palaces were all the same to little Nam as long as he could find a quiet moment, shut his eyes to the earthly world, and picture Livia. Who cared how the temple looked or what color the priests or monks wore? Brown, black, or blue—they were all pretty.
As little Nam grew older, and as the color gradually faded away from the magical world he once knew, unveiling the harsh, ugly reality behind it, he learned that Santa is not real, rainbows don’t end in heaven, and worst of all, genies don’t exist. He didn’t give up on his faith, though. How could he? The belief that he would meet Livia again was the only light in his otherwise dark world. First, he thought that perhaps the bald guy in the park was an angel, foretelling Nam and Livia’s destiny. That perception didn’t last long when Nam grew older, read many books, and learned that scientists had already proven that God didn’t exist, nor did his army of angels; and that his Christian Taoist parents were just too stubborn to listen to the scientists. Religious faith was out the window, and so was Nam’s belief in miracles. Yet, Nam still had faith—this time, faith in love; that Livia would not forget him through the thirty years of separation. That Livia would remember their rendezvous on the Story Bridge. That every time a handsome man asked her out for a drink, she would turn him down, saying, “Go away. My heart belongs to Nam.” That Livia would come to find Nam here on April 10. And then, neither the brutal icy weather, nor the heartless ICE agency, nor any other force in the world could stop a love that endured for three decades. Nam lets that thought linger and puts another mint tablet into his mouth—the heavenly taste money can buy. He runs the comb through his hair once more, just in case.
Every time life shows too much cruelty, Nam remembers Livia’s smile and life becomes bearable again. Livia has always been the only woman in his mind—a dream living on another continent. A dream that gave his life a sense of purpose as well as a direction: ‘Go West, young Nam.’ But, it turns out the West is not as eager as it should be to welcome the honor of the East. After many failed attempts to obtain a US visitor visa, Professor Nam Nguyen eventually found his way back to the land of dreams through a guest lecturer position at a small community college not too far from where he and his family had lived before being deported. It was a demotion that Nam accepted with love and enthusiasm. His search for Livia, however, proved fruitless; after all, how could you find a woman when the only thing you know is her first name and that she has the cutest smile and a scent as refreshing as mint? Eventually, all of his hope vanished, except for one last chance. That Livia would remember April 10, their rendezvous on the Story Bridge.
About the Book:
Even after his family is deported to Vietnam, Nam’s feelings for Livia endure through a promise of future love. Thirty years later, he returns to America, determined to find her and rekindle what they once shared. But as they navigate the complexities of adulthood and modern relationships, their bond is tested in ways neither could have imagined.
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/223138199-numbered-love
Purchase links:
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About the Author:
Dr. Maysam Yabandeh is a computer scientist graduated from Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland.
Twitter: http://x.com/maysamya
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