“I love you, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you.” She opened her mouth to speak something, but he continued “I love you with all your craziness… with just everything. You are the most beautiful soul that I have ever come across and would love to be with you forever… I know I am not the perfect person you have dreamt about, but I promise, to try harder and harder until I get there. I want to be there with you and face our life as it comes – TOGETHER. So… Tamanna, (deep breath) Will you marry me?”

He was down on one knee with a rose in his hand, and now, desperately waiting for an answer. He glared at her face, her twinkling eyes were moist. She had a smile on her face, the very smile he loved. All the people present in the hall were as eager as he to hear a “YES” from her. The whole hall was silent, or maybe he didn’t want to hear anyone else apart from her. Finally, she started saying something, but her expressions had changed. “Is this a joke?” she said. She looked red, maybe it is because she is blushing, or really angry; it was difficult to gauge, rather he wanted to believe that she was blushing. All friends and family were around and also many unknown people. He was worried now. He – the Rudra Singhania – never gave it a thought that she might actually say a no to ‘his’ proposal. He was now afraid, and he himself didn’t understand what exactly he was feeling; maybe he had never faced a rejection, that too from a girl – NEVER. With his Greek God looks, tall and muscular build with fair complexion and grey eyes and not to forget about his extremely rich family background; he knew he was a charm; the chances of getting rejected by a girl were too slim. But of course, this was the first time that he had gone down on his knees and talked marriage.

He loved her a lot. He cared about her. He was 27 and she was 25. The whole restaurant they were in was curious to know about her answer and Rudra was freaked out. He, or rather they both, had never talked about marriage. It had been 2 and a half years since they had been dating each other, and was still as crazy about her as much as he had been since the first time he saw her. He thought it was something in her eyes, some kind of magic.

It was 31^st May 2013; he remembered the date, and even the time 20:42 hrs. It was a party. Being from a rich family, it was very habitual of him to attend so many parties with skimpy clothed date plus drinks; this, resulting into great sex. He was more of a ‘one-night-stand’ guy. He loved drinking, smoked sometimes – just to show off. Due to his looks and personality and the wealthy family background that he had, it was easy for him to get dates which would result into sex by end of their drinking session.

That day it was different. He was least interested in the party. Even though he had a really hot date, he didn’t really want to be there in the party. This party was different. He was in Goa and accidently happened to bump into a long lost school friend who later invited him to the party. All other parties that he had been to were loud. In those parties people hardly knew each other, they were just present there because some rich brat had too much money to smoke up and drink alcohol. With all the media present at those parties, apart from the pretentious smiles and gestures towards each other, no one really cared about who’s who and what’s happening in the party. They were just present to dance to the loud music played by few of the best DJ’s in town, loads of photographs for media. This party was in Goa, arranged by his friend ‘just-like-that’. Rich people don’t really need a reason to celebrate. They just need money to blow and drinks to get high on and the media to show off, obviously.

Surprisingly, there was no media at this party, people actually knew each other and were genuinely interested in knowing about each other. He liked it. All the smiles he saw were warm and comforting, not the fake ones for the camera. The eyes here had some truth inside them and they weren’t just trying to please others or seduce them for publicity. Rudra Singhania had seen both the sides of people; those media starved people who cared less and the true ones. Probably, this was the reason he could judge whether some was lying or telling the truth.

Rudra was very sure that he was here at Goa for some fun, he didn’t want any media to capture him drinking and publicise him as some wasted youth. He was sure how he was going to spend his night. He went straight to the bar and he saw her. She was probably the most clothed person in the party and was continuously drinking and laughing. “Drunk” she must be he figured out, but the cheerful face was still laughing hard and the eyes seemed to have been crying or maybe some sleepless nights. He was all ready to drink, dance and get laid with some random girl and never call back. And here she was, in front of him… already drunk (saves his time… he thought). Now, he just has to talk to her. A drunken girl is very easy to get into bed with. He went towards the bar. Her eyes looked very innocent to him. “Hey beautiful, do you mind if I join for drinks?”

To be continued...

(Hi, I would love it if you guys tell me whether you would like to read more of this story)