The Shaking Flame

The blowing lake breeze and the shaking flame has never been so charming ever before. Every time she shifted the lock of hairs falling on her face and tucked it to her ears, it was becoming more difficult to tell which was more radiant - the beautiful smile on her face or the shaking flame. It was half past eight in the evening, and there it was; a perfect setup. The parapet made up of pine wood, two cane chairs, a center table and the candle and two souls. The reflection of all this in the lake, as if doubling the effect.

This was the first date they were having, and the full moon was promising to make it a good one, may be the best they will ever have. The music that was being played in the background, an old George Michael number, was adding to the smoothness of the red wine they were sipping at that moment. In this small hill station, this is usually the time locales prefer to head home and sleep for the next tiring day to dawn; and for the tourists, like they two were, this is the time to share and make new memories. They were sitting on the overhang of an old restaurant, the brown coloured walls of which were adding a velvety touch to the surrounding.

It was just a year since they have met, and this special date was to mark the anniversary of their meeting. The speciality of city life is that, it is fast and people are so engrossed in their daily lives that they hardly get an opportunity to steal some moments for themselves. So was the story with these two - they met, they met again and then met more frequently, but eventually on phone calls. And this is how it took him one year to ask her out for their first date. Thanks to the short interactions they had with each other, face to face, in the course of their professional proceedings that she agreed to come to a place which is five hours drive from their city of residence. 

Sometimes he was looking at her face, sometime at the flame and sometime in the lake and the reason of this was the apprehension he had in his mind, "Will she speak in affirmation?" Today for the very first time he was counting more on someone else than on himself, because he was expecting an answer from her to the proposal he had made to her three months back. It was not a business deal, that he can manoeuver but a moment that he has no control on. He was very much in his own thoughts, when she spoke to him the first word, his name - and he came out of the state of trance, he was in. For the first time it so happened that he was unable to decide, where to look for the next few moments, before she answers - on the glowing face that was beaming with grace or the shaking flame that was unsure of whether it will stand the test of time.