“Oh, please do not awaken me from this dream,” she sighed.
Their meal came and it looked marvelous and so very appetizing. They began to eat and talk and tossed out many ideas and questions.
“What about a wedding in Monaco? We love the spot,” he said.
“It sounds perfect,” she replied, “but what about the family, can they all come there? Would they want to come so far?”
“We cannot settle on a honeymoon right now for there are so many options from which to choose. We will have to cover it thoroughly, discussing many points of each area.”
“Oh, is this really true?” she exclaimed. “Me, here, in a real, live dream. I could never have imagined anything so wonderfully marvelous. Can we keep this evening from ever ending?”
“No, my precious,” he reached out for her hand and kissed her again, “nor would we want to. There are so many more wonderful things in store ahead when we are living it instead of just attempting to plan it.”
“Yes, of course, you are right. I hope every moment will always be as wonderful and exciting. This evening will never end, especially in my heart and mind. It will just be continued.”
With the meal finished, they sat as long as they could before they left. He looked at her, stood and reached out for her hand, “Shall we go? You look simply radiant, you wear excitement very well. I want to keep that element alive in our lives as much as possible.”
He took her hand, helped her up, put her wrap over her shoulders and they got ready to leave. The waiter came over wishing them well in their life together and thanked them for choosing this place as their engagement location.
“I have never seen a more radiant or happy couple. I am truly honored to have had such a marvelous opportunity to take care of this most precious event in your lives. Are you marrying a princess? She truly looks the part. Here, take these two glasses from which you drank your champagne tonight as a perfect and long lasting souvenir of this night. I know they will mean much more to you and each use will bring back this memory. No one else could ever use them and make them have more special meaning. They are yours and yours alone, take them with our compliments. Others using them would break the wonderful spell and you will keep it alive.”
“Yes, she will always be my princess, the most precious jewel that I could ever find, lovelier than an exquisite, large diamond. Jewels are precious, but she is far above the value of all of them together. They are only cool stones, with all their beauty they cannot love. She is real, alive, warm and wonderful. Thank you so much for the glasses, they will be truly special. What a wonderful, romantic, and special gesture. You are a great waiter and we are honored to have known you and had you serve us on this special night. There is no way imaginable where it could have been any better. What is your name, sir?”
“Sebastian,” he replied, “and it has truly been the greatest pleasure I have ever experienced in my years as a waiter. Thank you for the joy it has brought me. You are certainly an unusual couple and I know you have a wonderful future ahead of you.”
“Thank you, sir. It has been our pleasure to share this with you. We want others to know of our joy and bliss.”
He took her back to the hotel, parked the car, and escorted her to her door. “I must leave you, my precious, though I do not want to, but only for a short time. We will be back together tomorrow.” He held her and kissed her goodnight. This was a time for soft, gentle kisses of love and romance. “Thank you so much for saying you will become my truly spectacular bride, future Mrs. Noble. I will pick you up in the morning and we will have breakfast. Isn’t your show at one o‘clock in the afternoon? We meet at noon for a luncheon. Will it all be combined?”
“Yes, this time it is. Sometimes it works well this way. My line of fashions will be the second showing. I get nervous when I have to wait. And now it will be very difficult to stay calm after tonight.”
“Do not worry, I am sure yours will be tops, no matter how many they have,” he encouraged her.
“Thanks for your vote of confidence. You are going to be a great source of encouragement and inspiration. I can always use that.” She felt confident as a rule but did not want anything to take up the time they could spend together.
She floated into her room and he glided upstairs to his room.
The night finally passed and they were both up early, eager to be together again as soon as possible. He knocked on her door about eight o’clock in the morning and asked if she were hungry and ready for breakfast. They went to a charming little restaurant and lingered over the meal reliving the excitement of the previous evening. She held her hand up and looked at her ring.
“Yes, it was real, I was not dreaming.” The sparkle in her eyes truly rivaled the sparkle of the gems. He was so delighted to see her excitement. Life would always be different from now on, a total combination of hearts and feelings, no more separate people.
They finished breakfast and walked outside into the beautiful sunshine and decided to take a walk about the place. It was amazing how bright and beautiful everything looked today. They did some window shopping for an hour or so, looking at some bridal gowns and tuxedos. They would know when they saw ‘the ones’. Soon they left to get ready for the fashion show. She had to pick up her portfolio and samples kit to take along and may change her outfit. He also wanted to change but would be right back.
They left for the fashion luncheon. It was a delightful and beautiful setting and the lunch was really special. The models paraded around the room showing off the fashions to the customers.
“I felt so unusual,” she told him, “Not at all like before. It was so hard to get my mind on the show. It felt very strange. I am already anxious for it to be over and done with. The thrill of the sale and the attitude of the audience toward my line of fashions is hard to keep in mind.”
It was easy to tell she was living a special moment because of the special glow in her cheeks and eyes which had a sparkle like her diamond in bright light. Her friend Phylicia who introduced them came up to say hello to them.
“What has happened to you, Triessa? You’re glowing like a sapphire.” She looked at him and he, also, had a special look about him. “Oh, I get it, you two hit it off, fill me in. I felt you had something going from the start. How wonderful, I feel sort of like Miss Cupid. Please keep me informed and involved. How does that sound?
They told her that they had spent some time together since the beginning and were now engaged. She held up her hand to show off her special ring.
“We are deeply in love and plan to marry as soon as we can,” recited Triessa. “We definitely will not leave you out of it. You are one person who will always be special to us for bringing us together.”
At three o’clock in the afternoon tomorrow she was to meet some people to show her fabric pattern designs to the design company for a fabric line. After the show was over, they would go to a very special place he loved and have dinner there. When they arrived she was spellbound at the beauty and elegance. As they walked out on the balcony, a wide arc of water spread out before them like blue velvet dotted with many small sail boats. He pointed out one that belonged to him and told her they would go for a ride in it one day real soon. They spent a long, leisurely evening over their meal and made a toast with champagne to the upcoming gala extravaganza that would unite them forever and ever. They were still up on a huge, fluffy cloud and it seemed like they would be floating for a long time, maybe forever. How difficult it was to think of having to make plans. But the moment would come.
The evening finally ended and they went back to her hotel and parted for a short time, planning to meet again for breakfast tomorrow and spend part of the day shopping until she had to be at her meeting at three o'clock in the afternoon. The nights alone were becoming more and more difficult to endure. It seemed she could not manage many more of them and was not sure she could endure any more. She got ready for bed hoping she would go to sleep quickly and have the night pass so she could be u
p to meet Todd again tomorrow for breakfast.
She awoke early the next morning and got ready for breakfast downstairs at the hotel where he was to meet her. After breakfast they drove over to the area where her meeting was to take place and looked in some of the shops there. They looked around for quite some time and stopped in a little ice cream parlor for a quick lunch. At about two-thirty in the afternoon they left to drive to the place of her appointment for her fabric designs viewing.
Once there, they were accepted eagerly and the store owners asked her to show them her sketches. She did so and they chose three of them to work with and told her they might consider some more once they began to see how they could work these into some of their fabrics. They took her address and telephone number so they could reach her if they wanted to use more later. She was so excited.
Once the meeting was over they went back to their hotel to get ready for an evening of dancing. He would be back to pick her up in an hour and a half so they could have dinner first.
“Why don’t you try to get a little rest, my dear? Will you please wear the blue dress you had on the other night? It was truly elegant and I want you to be with the belle of the ball, which will be inevitable. It was a perfect dress for dancing. We will be outside on a lovely moonlit patio. It is very balmy and romantic.”
The next day was free and they planned to spend it together but had made no particular plans yet. It would be a do-as-you feel day. The following day she would accompany him for the first time on one of his jewelry sales meetings.
The day was clear and bright. They awoke feeling the same and were so eager to get together again and spend the whole day without interruptions, just going over many things they wished to do now and in their future.
“Such a glorious day and it will be great to take a sail,” he suggested to her.
“I would love that. I already have on a pair of slacks that I made for the trip and a jacket to go with it in case the weather gets cool.”
They drove to the area where they had seen all the boats in the water while they had been at the restaurant. He showed her where his boat was moored. He stopped at a little store near the dock to have a picnic lunch prepared, some delightful sandwiches, sweet pickles, and a bottle of wine with some ice. Some little pastries would add a nice touch. Once it was ready, they headed for the dock to take a small boat and go out to his yacht. They pulled up alongside the boat, he helped her up onto it, passed her the picnic lunch and then secured the small boat to the mooring and climbed the ladder to the yacht. She took the lunch into the cabin and stored it for later.
He went up on deck, freed the boat from its mooring, then started it so they could be off on their sail. He took her along the shore line for a while so she could see it from off shore. She was spellbound and thrilled.
He asked, “Did you spend any time in a boat growing up?”
“Yes, my dad used to take me out on a nearby lake when I was small and I loved it.”
When they got to the end of the point of land, a small island loomed up on the near horizon. He headed in the direction of the island with plans to take her ashore for a picnic. There were a number of moorings there and a small dock which could handle his boat. It was a short ride and they arrived quickly. He pulled up to the dock and moored the boat. He helped her out onto the dock, passed her the picnic lunch, and then got out himself.
They held hands and walked along the dock to the sandy beach. They stopped, turned around and looked at the mainland from here.
“What a beautiful sight,” she exclaimed. “The clearness of the day is perfect for the view.”
“Yes,” he agreed, “It is a delightful day for a sail. I am glad we came.”
They looked for a few minutes, turned to look at each other, gently kissed, and turned to walk up onto the island. It was so easy and natural to be together. There was a small hill and they climbed the path to the top. She looked ahead into a green, clear space dotted with wildflowers and in the center of it was a small cottage which looked like some she had seen in other parts of Europe. The windows were small on the front with window boxes full of gorgeous plants. On one end was a large picture window where the water and mainland could be seen clearly.
They went inside; she loved the country air and quaintness of the interior. There was a lovely fireplace that could be seen from a table in front of the large window. They walked over to the table and set the picnic basket on it. He then turned and went back to a small cupboard, took out some dishes adequate for the meal plus two pieces of stemware for the wine. He took them to the table and she placed them where they could sit to look out at the sights, which filled the window like a fabulous painting inside a rustic wooden frame. He poured the wine, she took the napkins from the basket and placed one by each plate.
She looked about the cottage, “I would like to be able to fix up a place like this, it could be so fantastic and fun.”
“Yes, it could stand some work, I guess, and I know you could make it look simply adorable. It doesn’t have a special caretaker. It was kept up by visitors mostly. Maybe at some point we could see if we could do some work on it. It would be a very interesting and neat project.”
They sat down to eat; it was close to noon so they were ready. The sea air had been very invigorating and they had worked up a good appetite. The man in the store was well aware that this could happen so he put in plenty of lunch for them. They talked as they ate.
“How did the cottage get built?” she asked.
“People in the town on the mainland got together and did it. They had it set up so anyone who wished to could use it when they were on the island, as long as they cared for it and cleaned it up when they left. Everyone has enjoyed and appreciated it very much, so they are careful to keep it neat and clean for those who came after them.”
“This was a grand idea, a community-shared cottage,” she stated. She got up and walked around the place. “There are sleeping quarters here also. I guess some may spend the night or several days here. It may be fun to do that after we are married.”
“Yes, many do stay here and really love it. We definitely will come here at some point in the future, after the honeymoon and we are settled.”
Large towels hung from pegs on the wall of the bedroom and near them were bathing suits.
“What a perfect idea,” she exclaimed. “Let’s take a swim while we are here.”
“Why not, sounds great to me,” he replied. “You change first, then I will. We only have the one bedroom. I guess our lunch is sufficiently settled to be safe going in the water.”
She came out in a pink bathing suit and had a bathing cap ready to put on.
He exclaimed, “You look marvelous, it is a perfect style and color for you.”
He changed into dark blue trunks and they rushed out the door and down to the water’s edge. The water was warm and clear. They could see the bottom clearly. Many colorful stones and sea shells were scattered about on the bottom of the water, near the shore. She reached down, gathered up some and put them back on the beach to keep them safe. “I will take these home with me and do something with them.” She went back into the water and they swam around for a while then went back to the cottage to change. It would be time to go back when they were dressed, so they could do something else on the mainland. He had some other sights he wished to show her.
They gathered up their picnic basket, after they had packed the washed and dried containers back into it, and cleaned up the cottage to get ready to leave. They went to the boat and sailed back to the spot where he kept it moored. They got in the car and went back to the hotel to change and he planned to take her for a drive. Once they were back into the car, he exclaimed, “What a wonderful day it has been. Previously I would have spent much of my time wandering around by myself. After knowing you, I can now see a great loneliness in that idea.”
He drove along the shore, then headed up an incline that curved around up to the top. He parked, they got out of the c
ar, and walked to the edge of the area to look out at the expanse of water. He pointed out the little island they had just visited. They could even see the small cottage on top of the hill, how wonderful. They sat on some benches there and looked out over the water, watched the small boats out sailing around and saw one pulling up before the island where they were just a short time ago. They looked at each other and smiled understanding the feelings they would be having as they spent time there in such pleasant surroundings.
“What a great gift to put there for everyone, such a kind gesture. It must have been done by some romantic soul.” They knew they were both thinking the same things as they often did and held and squeezed each other’s hand. They stood up, faced each other, kissed gently. They stood side by side for another few minutes looking at the water, and turned to walk to the car. On the way down the hill, he pointed out sights to her that could add more meaning to the place.
They went back to the hotel and decided that by the time they changed it would be time to go to dinner. He knew a grand restaurant on the back of the hill where they could dance afterward.
He came to pick her up. As he opened the door and looked at her he exclaimed, “Look at you, what a beautiful dress.”
It isn't the blue one but that was a special occasion dress and I felt this would be good. I made it special for such an occasion. Do you mind terribly?” she asked. She had made it from the black Confetti Organza with the black cut velvet circles edged in gold. The cobweb sheer material looked great for sleeves and the top of her dress. She wore the necklace he had given her when she picked him up back home at the airport.
“How can you keep looking more elegant every time? No, I really do not mind. This dress is fine for tonight. Especially since it is one you made for this time. You always look so perfect. How do you manage to do it? I certainly am one lucky man.”
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