Now, if I just dunk this. Rafael
faked a left, dribbled the ball and sprang towards the basket. Yes! As his team
mates lifted him, his eyes automatically landed on her. There she was. His
heart rate upped a bit when she smiled back .She was possibly about to say
something, when he got dragged by his team to form a rowdy huddle.
As he walked off the court, he
could hear the men chant victory slogans. As their gaze reconnected, he could see
the suppressed laughter in her face. He did not blame her. It wasn’t exactly the
NBA playoffs but the men all behaved liked it was. Her smile increased in
wattage as his stride brought him nearer to the stands. It took all effort to
not run the last few steps to her. I can’t believe she is mine, thought Rafael,
as they hugged.
As he headed to the locker room
for washing up, Ashley proceeded to the bar as always. As he saw her walk away,
he could not help but think about their up-coming trip. Nowadays, they did not
get as much time with each other. The trip was just a weekend away and yet,
Rafael could not wait for it to begin. Their itinerary had been planned weeks
in advance. Everything was ready.
He just had to pick the ring
tomorrow on his way back from work. I hope she says yes, thought Rafael. She
should, ideally. But proposals could be tricky business and they had a
complicated history.
During college, whenever Michael had
met Rafael, Ashley featured prominently in Michael’s conversation. Everything led
back to Ashley. Absolutely everything. Ice-cream, coffee, movies, music. Rafael
could see Michael was falling for her but the idiot did not know it himself.
Thankfully, Michael had figured
it out for himself. Rafael met Ashley when she came home to meet their parents.
In the days leading to the wedding preparation, Rafael got to know her better. He
could see why Michael was in a hurry to marry this woman. Ashley was everything
Michael needed in his life.
Ashley’s parents were just like
her. Warm hearted, sunny people. The families were happy. The couple was deliriously
happy. The two families had decided to spend Christmas together. It was a
quaint holiday planned outside the city and everyone was looking forward to the
break.
It had been quite a Christmas - food,
wine and people you love. It had started snowing with gusto and Michael had
decided to get some lumber before they got snowed in – a trip which he should
not have taken. Michael hated driving through fresh snowfall. If he would have
just woken Rafael up, things would have been so different.
When Michael was not responding
to his cell phone, Ashley had woken Rafael up. Rafael remembered the frantic
drive to the lumber yard. One look at the mangle of blue metal, and Rafael’s heart
had dropped to his stomach. Had Mike lived, he would have been a vegetable.
Mercifully, he had died on the spot.
A family Christmas had turned
uglier than anyone had ever imagined. Ashley was beside herself. His parents
were inconsolable. Rafael had hidden his own sorrow somewhere and acted the
older son. He cancelled the wedding preparations and made funeral arrangements instead.
When Ashley left the city and
went back to her parents, Rafael had almost felt deserted. The one person who
could share the sorrow with him was going away. When she had moved back to the
city, she got in touch with him. What had initially started as companionship of a shared sorrow, had turned to more than that. He
did not know exactly when, but they had stopped talking about Michael and had
started talking about each other. Two years after the fatal crash, Rafael asked
Ashley out.
As he reached the bar, Rafael
could see Ashley sipping a deep red colored cocktail. There was an olive green colored
drink waiting for him. Ashley was definitely more adventurous than him when it
came to trying food or drinks. As Rafael took a tentative sip, the bartender
who always served them, walked up to them and asked,’ did you like your
drinks?’
As the three got into an easy
conversation, Rafael could not stop thinking about the ring he was to pick tomorrow.
The ring was a princess cut solitaire, sitting on a band of platinum. It’s been
close to five years since the accident. She was back to being the bubbly,
cheerful Ashley he had known and come to love. Yet there had been times where
there would be a shadow over her. She had been honest about it to him which is
why he was feeling confident about getting a ring now!
I just hope she is ready to take
this step, Rafael thought. If she wasn’t, he would wait till she was. Being in
love had burnt her once and he hoped she was ready to take the chance again.
