Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Gold on my finger!

"What the hell are you doing?" I asked shocked on what I thought was going to happen.

"Kate, would you marry me?" he asked will opening up a red square box.

Mouth wide open, I struggled with words to give him. A little tear slowly descended on my cheeks as I covered my face with both my hands.

"Kate?" He asked.

"Yes."

"Would you?"

"Yes, yes." I answered him in between sobs. Some clapping ensured from the neighbouring tables.

"Phew, thank you." He finally said smiling. He rose up slowly from the floor back to his seat.

"How did you do this?" I asked fiting the pretty ring on my middle finger.

"I knew you always wanted to come to this place so I knew it would give the surprise was gonna be good." He said taking his drink. "You like it?"

"Very much. I really can't believe it. It really looks expensive."

"The price should not be your concern." He said smiling.

"Fred, are you sure about this? I mean we have only dated for a few months." I said admiring the gold ring on my finger.

"I know but you are the perfect one for me. Thank you for being there for me when I was down and up emotionally. I would like you to be mine forever." he asked.

"Awww, me too. This is the best dinner date ever! I can't wait to tell Ann and Mike."

"Maybe Ann. Mike knows about it."

"What?"

"Yea, he was the one who made the reservations here for me and I went with him to pick out the ring."

"My, my, my. You guys are really something."

"Yes we are." He said kissing me on my hand.

We spent the rest of the evening celebrating this part of our relationship. I really wouldn't have guessed something like this would happen but I'm so happy. I love this guy so much and wouldn't want anything to come between us. He is now my fiance. I feel good saying that!

I called Ann later to break the news to her and she was so overjoyed that she broke down on the phone. Who wouldn't! Isn't this what every girl wants?

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Not Okay

After two days, Fred was discharged from the hospital. I also got a chance to enjoy his parents company when we all met for lunch in town before they left. Fred also resumed work and life crept slowly back to normal. Ann got a leave period of three weeks from her work place. She had been really looking forward for it for a long period. She packed her bags and left for her parents.

I moved in with Fred when he came back home and Ann left for her parents. Mike had got for some trip out of town so we got a chance to enjoy some alone time with each other. Time dragged on slowly as work got pretty busy but all of this was overshadowed by the events that were to follow.

One Saturday morning, I had gone outside to enjoy the sun when Fred came and interrupted my session.

"Are you free this evening?" he asked sitting on the grass.

"Why?" I asked.

"I thought we could do something different today. Maybe have dinner?"

"Yea, that would be a great idea. What time as I am going to visit Tina in the afternoon."

"Around seven?" he asked.

"Okay. Just let me know the venue." I said very excited.

"Ill text you before then." he said and left.

I prepared myself and went to visit Tina. She was my cousin who lived on the other side of town. The last time I saw her is when she was with my mother and she had been physically abused by her husband but she had decided to stay on despite our advices. Her little girl had grown all big. we spent time together before I got a text from Fred at around six that we were to meet at the Riz Hotel. What? Why do we have to go to such an expensive hotel?

I got to know why when we sat down and started talking while waiting for food. He was very emotional and he thanked me for taking care of him while in the hospital. The food came and we started eating it silently but he was really egdy.

"Fred, what's up?" I asked concerned.

"I'm not okay." he answered while loosening his shirt.

"What's wrong?"

"Ill be okay in a few minutes but not before I do this." he said while on a bended knee.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Of laughter

By the end of the day, I was so tired that I just went home. Ann was already in the house when I arrived so we organized something to eat for dinner. I told her about my meeting with Fred's mom while cutting up some tomatoes. She was really excited about it.

After having dinner, I called my mom. I had missed her so much. The family was doing okay and she was glad I called. I felt like talking to her about Fred's accident but I didn't. I just updated her about how the job was going on and life in general.

The next morning, we went to the hospital again to visit Fred. His parents were in the room as we arrived.  Fred had sat up on the bed having a glass of juice. I greeted the parents and went to hug Fred. I was so excited seeing him all recovered and able to do some simple stuff that he couldn't do the day before. Ann and Mike all followed and said hi to Fred.

"I bet you are feeling much better?" I asked.

"Yes." Fred answered. "I feel fine."

"That's nice. You had made us all worried for a moment there." Mike added and everyone burst out laughing.

"Sorry guys." Fred answered.

"It's okay. Mind telling us what really happened?" Mike asked.

"I was heading to Steve's place to watch the finals of the match. The car that i was in suddenly skid off the road and hit an oncoming truck that was headed our direction. The driver tried to maneuver the vehicle but with minimal success."

"I'm sorry baby." Fred's mom said.

"It's okay mom. At least no one got critically hurt." Fred answered. "By the way Kate, does the company know what happened?"

"Yes. I reported to the HR so don't worry." I answered.

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Excuse me

Since time was moving pretty quickly, I had to get back to the office. I excused myself and left the room towards the main exit door of the hospital before I felt someone touch my shoulder.

"Excuse me Catherine." A voice spoke out.

I turned around and saw that it was Fred's mom. She had ran to reach me as she was really breathing heavily.

"Yes?" I asked.

"Sorry to ask you this but are you Fred's girlfriend?" She asked and looked down.

I was silent for a while before I answered her. "Yes i am."

"Oh, I thought so too. He has been speaking very highly of you." She replied.

"Really?" I asked really astonished.

"Yes, he has. Whenever we had conversations with him over the phone he usually talked about you so I figured you are his girlfriend."

"That's really nice of him. I'm really sorry for what happened to him."

"I'm sorry too. Thank you for being there for him." She said. "Sorry we had to meet under such circumstances but I'm really glad to have met you."

"Me too. I'm so glad that we have finally met." I said. "I have to leave but I hope we can see each other again."

"Yes, definitely. Take care dear." She said.

I looked at my watch and saw that I had only five minutes left. Damn! Now I have to take a cab to the office. I was really avoiding to take a taxi to the office since I was so low on my cash but I had no other option. Out on the street, I flagged down the first one I saw and got in.

Glad I didn't have much work in the office so the day was a little bit better for me. Time dragged on and on so by the time lunch hour reached, I wished the day was over already.

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Meet the Parents

Mike walked back to the room with a frown on his face. He sat down and told us Fred's parents knew about the accident after Fred giving out their numbers to the hospital staff. They were requesting Mike to meet them tomorrow morning at the hospital. As we prepared to sleep, I was getting more nervous to meeting Fred's parents under such circumstances. Would they blame me for letting him go to watch the game alone?

At exactly five thirty o'clock the following morning, I was up. I took a shower and dressed up. Meanwhile Mike and Ann who woke up a few minutes late, were rushing to prepare themselves up while i was taking breakfast. It really looked comical.

By six thirty, we were out of the house. The traffic was really messed up from the time we joined the main road to the hospital. It was drizzling so this was making it even more hard to drive as cars were slowing down to prevent skidding on the highway. Luckily, we managed to arrive to the hospital at seven fifteen. We rushed through the doors, through the corridors until we reached his room. The number on the door (11A) gave me the creeps. Mike knocked and entered as we followed. There were two elderly couple sitted facing the bed on the left side of the room. They seemed surprised when they saw us bulging into the room but the expression changed when the looked at Mike.

The woman slowly rose and came and hugged Mike. The man gently gave him a pat on the back silently. Mike then turned to us and introduced us.

"Guys, this is Fred's mom Linda and dad Steve."

We shook hands with them each of us telling them our names. They were really happy.

"So Mike, how did this happen?" Linda asked while sitting back to her chair.

As Mike narrated the ordeal that befell her son, i kept a close eye to Fred's mom. Although she was elderly, she was still a beautiful woman. The nails were neatly done and she had a little bit of make up on her. The long hair was tied up in a loosely low ponytail. Steve on the other hand, was an exact copy of his son. They really looked alike.