as they were seated. A waiter came to pour the champagne and bring them their appetizers. It seemed that Kenneth had also taken care of ordering their meal. Sarah smiled as the waiter sat her pink caviar entréé in front of her. She could already tell that it was prepared to perfection.
Their dinner went perfectly. At one point, while they were eating, a violinist entered the room and softly played all of their favorite romantic songs. Throughout the serenaded dinner, Sarah and Kenneth kept gazing lovingly at each other. When it was time for dessert, a special pink cheesecake in one pot and the famous pink champagne soufflé in another soufflé dish to splurge some more arrived topped with ripe, red strawberries and fluffy
cream. Sarah practically squealed with delight of such a perfect dinner;
Everything was perfect and Sarah was still trying to figure out how Kenneth had managed to do all of this. He did alright professionally but, as a bicycle salesman, he didn’t make millions of dollars. While all of this didn’t cost a million dollars, it definitely had not been inexpensive. Now he was smiling at her across the table and looking at her with those beautiful green eyes of his. He pushed a small gift wrapped box across the table to her.
She intended to give him her gift with the beautiful red pen back at home because she wanted to see how he unwrapped it in the tranquility of her apartment. She wanted to get a good look on his face for his reaction because he had wanted to buy it so desperately each time when they had passed that shop where it had been exposed exquisitely in the window.
"Happy Valentine’s Day, sweetheart," he said softly and keep your figure beautiful and full like I adore my angel. "Open it."
"Oh Ken, you’ve done so much already! You didn’t have to get me a present on top of everything else!" Sarah exclaimed.
"Just open it," Kenneth replied, smiling.
With another loving smile in his direction, Sarah picked up the gift and start to carefully remove the shiny red paper. A small box was revealed once the paper was gone. She opened the box fully expecting to see a pair of earrings or something, but what she found was a shiny key. Lifting the key out of the box, she looked at it and then Kenneth quizzically.
"If you’ve finished eating, I’ll take you to see what the key fits," Kenneth said mysteriously.
When they exited the restaurant, Kenneth’s car was waiting, having been brought around by the valet. He tipped the man and helped Sarah into the car. As they rode along, Sarah reached over and squeezed Kenneth’s hand. Smiling over at her, he squeezed hers back and they continued to hold hands until Kenneth turned into a long, tree lined driveway.
"Where are we," Sarah asked.
"You’ll see soon enough," Kenneth said. "In fact, close your eyes until I tell you to open them."
"Oh more surprises," Sarah laughed, but she did as she was told.
Finally, she felt the car come to a stop and heard Kenneth putting it into park. He turned off the engine and exited the car. Next, she heard her car door open and felt Kenneth take her hand to help her out.
"OK, Sarah, you can look now."
When she opened her eyes, her knees almost went weak. She stood before a house. Not just any house, though. This was a house that she had been so excited about when she and Kenneth had decided to spend a Sunday afternoon going to open houses. An old fashioned two story farmhouse had been conducting an open house and she had fallen in love with it immediately. There was a huge wraparound front porch and columns. The land was meticulously landscaped and there was a lot of it.
"Oh Kenneth, what have you done?" she whispered.
"Go ahead," Kenneth said. "Use your key."
Looking at him again, Sarah slowly walked up the steps to the front door. With shaking hands, she put the key into the lock and turned it. The door swung open instantly and she was standing in a foyer that was just as beautiful as she remembered. Walking up behind her, Kenneth wrapped his arms around her waist.
"Do you like it," he asked.
"Kenneth, I can’t even speak! How did you do this?"
"Well, I’m afraid that I’ve been keeping a little secret from you. Do you remember when Mr. Weston retired last year?"
"You mean Mr. Weston from the bike shop? Yeah, I remember that."
"When he left, he had a little surprise me. He had decided to take his retirement and leave me the shop. I’ve owned the shop since then. But I wanted to do something special for you and I’ve been saving all the money that I can. I wasn’t sure what I was going to get for you, but when we looked at this house and I saw your face, I knew."
Sarah turned in his arms and faced him in wonder.
"You bought this house for me?" she managed to ask.
"Yes, for you," answered Kenneth. "Come with me. I want to show you something."
He took her hand and led her up the curving staircase. They turned down a long hallway that took them past several doors. She knew that the double doors at the end of the hall opened into the master bedroom suite. Kenneth opened these doors to reveal a fully decorated and furnished suite. There was a large old fashioned canopied bed as well a sitting area in front of a fireplace. Kenneth scurried around making a fire and lighting candles.
"Oh Kenneth, this is amazing!"
"Come and sit," he said as he motioned her to come to the loveseat in front of the now cozily blazing fire.
Sarah was having a hard time processing all of this but she walked almost robotically over to the loveseat and sat down. As she as she did so, Kenneth dropped to his knee and took her hand.
“Sarah, I have loved you since the first moment you walked into the bike shop. Maybe I didn’t totally realize it then, but that’s when it happened. It was like a lightning bolt had struck me. That love only grows more every day. I’m hoping that you love me as much as you say that you do. Sarah, please make me the happiest man in the world and agree to be my lovely wife that I desire to spoil for the rest of my life.”
If Sarah had thought she couldn’t be surprised any more tonight, she was wrong. Her eyes filled with tears and she threw her arms around Kenneth’s neck.
"Oh yes, Kenneth! Yes! I’ll marry you! I love you so much you wonderful amazing man!"
With that, he pulled out another little box that held a decent sized diamond engagement ring. He placed it on her finger and started to kiss her. The kiss became intensely passionate and he picked her up to carry her to the bed. Laying her down, he joined her as they continued to kiss.
A couple of hours later, Sarah and Kenneth lay together under the covers, his arm around her and her head on his bare chest. Lifting her hand up into the candlelight, Sarah gazed in wonderment at her ring. It was the most beautiful ring in the world to her.
She totally forgot about her own gift that she had left sitting on her dinner table to surprise him. The thought of the pen faded in her mind's eye in comparison to the reality that was facing her.
She knew in her heart and at that very moment of truth that her addiction to chocolate and candy had to be a souvenir of her very private and secretive past and that she had to develop her character to please Kenneth as his future wife. She knew in her heart and in her soul that the love for Kenneth would give her enough power and strength to deal with her weakness for chocolate. To her own suprise she did not even think about the chocolate body paint anymore,