A Beautiful Dream

                   Life is perfect. I have everything that I could have ever imagined, a good job, a great house, an amazing car, but the most beautiful part about my life is that I get to share it with the woman I love. She is the happiest thing to have ever happened to me. Although like other men, I am little low on memories, remembering dates and all. But I knew for sure what this day was significant of. It was the fifth anniversary of our first date.  What made this day more special was that this was the day I wanted to take my relationship further. I was going to propose.

                    I planned a little surprise for her, and made sure that she had no idea of what I had in store for her. I remember her describing me about her perfect date, and I tried to make that as real as possible. I even got the ring ready for my proposal.

                   It was towards the end of summer, spring setting in. The sun shone brightly, it was a perfect day to begin with. I was very excited and tensed as well as to how this day would end. I got ready, went over to her place and picked her up at noon and then we went to the National Gallery of Modern Art. This was where we had our first date. This was the first part of my plan. To relive the moments from our first date, which was quite beautiful,  she being passionate about art, and me. Well I appreciated art to quite a certain extent, but this was the place where we first realised that our relationship had a chance of working out.

                   In all my days of being with her, loving her the way I did. I thought I knew almost everything about her, but I didn’t. There is always something mysterious about the woman you love, and that is what keeps the sparks alive. Honestly, I began the day on quite an ordinary note.

                   I was expecting her to be expecting more from me, hoping that I had done something more, but to my surprise, she was ecstatic. She loved the idea of reliving the moments from our first date, where we first spoke to each other for a long time, looking deep into each others eyes and knowing that something really wonderful was happening.

                   We entered the museum, she was excited just like the way she was the first time she was here, holding my arm as we walked in. We took a stroll around the museum, pausing in between looking at the art trying to remember what we talked about the first time we were there. It was not that hard to remember when she was around, although I was pretending that it was quite hard to remember, just to make her laugh about those times.

                   It was quarter to four when we head out to sit in the park at the museum; we didn’t have lunch that day. I just had a bottle of red wine with me, which I poured into two wine glasses and then we sipped into some classic French delight. The experience, as I remember was very beautiful. I then dropped her by her place. As I was walking away, I could now see that she was expecting something more out of this day. I walked back to my car and turned around looking back at her, as she smiled and gently closed the door.

                   I then head back over to my place to continue with the rest of my preparations. It was half past eight, the scene was set.  A garden well lit up by the bright moonlight and the lighting around. A barbecue station at the side, and a table set up at the centre of the garden, beautifully dressed with silk woven table cloth and the dishes and the glass set up.

         And then, there she was wearing a dark navy blue sundress with small silver earrings dangling from her ears, the black heels adding to her height, and her pretty face with the most beautiful smile I had ever seen. I could live my whole life, just sitting across her at the table and looking into her gleaming eyes, watching her smile, and listening to her telling her tales.

                   As she walked in through the gate, I walked up to her and held her hand, and then walked her up by the pool. Holding her one arm with the other by her waist, we danced to a soft romantic music. This was me trying to make her dream date a reality. She had a calm soothing smile all on her face, this smile was different from the one in the morning, but it was every bit as beautiful. I don’t remember much, what we talked during the dance, I just remembered that we had a great time.

                   And then, at the barbeque station, where the food was already prepped up. The chef (me) just had to give the finishing touches. And she was standing beside me at the station, helping me out. The perfect dinner, under the perfect moonlight and yet I was awaiting for the perfect moment, The moment for my proposal.

                   She was telling me about how she was expecting something more, and how when she walked in to her house, saw this beautiful sundress on the table with a message, to be expecting something big that night. She knew that by something big I meant something more than this special dinner date.

                   I held her hand, looking deep into her eyes called her by her name and said, “You know! You are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen in my life, I mean sure it took quite a while to get to know you , but you are truly a wonderful person, your humbleness, cheerful attitude, the passion you bring in to your words I was truly charmed by them. But the first time I realised that this was love was when you were at your most vulnerable the day when you told me about who you truly are as a person. I consider myself to be lucky to have you in my life. I can sit across this table, look at you smile forever, wishing that this moment would never end!”

                   There were tears in her eyes as I continued, “ So I am asking you to give me the opportunity to sit across the table and look at you smile holding your hand, to give you all the happiness which I could offer you, and to grow old together. Will you marry me?” and I proposed kneeling before her and showing her the ring.

                   There was a long pause, her eyes filled with tears. She was overwhelmed, the happiest I had ever seen her and she said, “Yes!” and nodded her head. I was ecstatic, and put the ring on her finger and hugged her tight. My eyes, teary, overwhelmed with emotions, happiness like I had never felt before and I could feel her holding me tight and then we kissed. After the kiss, me close to her face holding it in my palm and looking into her eyes asked her, “Is this a dream?” and she replied nodding her head, “Yes!”

                   And then suddenly everything around me began disappearing, everything but her. The dinner table, the barbeque station, the garden, the moon, everything else disappeared and everything went black. Suddenly, I opened my eyes, the room around me was dark, and the fan not running as there was no electricity. I sat up and looked around; sleeping next to me was my wife. It was our first date anniversary, and I didn’t have anything special planned out for her on this day. The beautiful dream I had had, was the one which she described to me a long time ago, And I wished that I could make it come true for her. But the dream was too expensive, but the smiles and the love in it was real.

                   Although, I was unable to make our anniversary as grand as it was in the dream, I managed to make it as close to it as possible. I took her to the place where we had our first date, The National Gallery of Modern Art, reliving the moments from our first date, She had the same smile on her face which she had in the dream, she was excited just like the way she was the first time she was here, holding my arm as we walked in. We took a stroll around the museum, pausing in between looking at the art trying to remember what we talked about the first time we were there. It was not that hard to remember when she was around, although I was pretending that it was quite hard to remember, just to make her laugh about those times.

                   It was quarter to four when we head out to sit in the park at the museum; we didn’t have lunch that day. I had a bottle of Appy Fizz with me. Both of us were fond of it, and we had it the first time we were on the date together. Sure, unlike in the dream where I had a bottle of red wine, the finest one which I could not afford. But on many levels this bottle of Appy Fizz had more sentiments attached to it.

                   And then for dinner, like it was in the dream, I was the chef and we had the dinner after a dance to a sweet romantic song under the moonlight of our residence’s terrace. I realise that my day was not as grandeur as the way it was in my dream, but this day was better than any other dream I could have ever have dreamt because I had the most wonderful woman I knew to be a part of my life. I could see her smile every day, for the moments when we were together and this was why I considered myself to be lucky, why this day special and why this night to be a beautiful dream.