A car pulled up in front of Melanie’s apartment. Donny, dressed in khaki’s and a polo shirt, got out of his convertible BMW and walked to her door. He put the key in at the same time she opened it.
“I saw you through the shades,” Melanie said nervously. “You sure are dressed up and looking handsome.”
“You look beautiful as well,” Donny said with a smile. “You are truly the most beautiful woman in the whole world.” As he said this, they gently kissed.
Her heart seemed to skip a couple of beats and then proceeded to race faster than it ever had before.
“I’ll get my purse and then we can go.”
They walked out of her apartment as Marco opened his eyes from dozing off. He took his finger and slowly moved the shades so he could peer out the window. He saw Melanie first and then he saw the man. “Bastards!” he screamed in his mind.
He grabbed his sunglasses and a hat and hurried out the door to follow them.
As he was following them, he was cursing. He was practically in a rage until he noticed people in other cars looking at him. He decided it was in his best interest to calm down so no one would call the police. They were driving along about five car lengths ahead of him and he decided to keep a safe distance. When they pulled into a restaurant, he followed them and drove into a parking space away from there’s.
Melanie and Donny walked in the restaurant and were immediately seated. They ordered white, chardonnay. He ordered lasagna with meat and she, being a vegetarian, ordered it without any. They talked about how long they had been together and all they had been through.
Marco was sitting in his car debating with himself. If he went in, she might notice him. Sitting in car was boring him though. After twenty minutes he decided to go in. He walked up to the door and held it open for a couple so he could hide behind them, and he quickly cased the dining area. He had a hat on and his sunglasses to try to disguise himself. As the hostess asked how many he told her one in smoking. He knew Melanie didn’t smoke. The hostess was leading him into the smoking section right in the direction of Melanie however! “What is going on?” he thought. “Why is she in the smoking section?” He noticed her looking right at him as he was being seated. The waitress handed him his menu and walked away. As he was looking at it, he could feel Melanie’s stare. He held the menu high to try and cover his face. If he peered over the menu, they would be looking right at each other.
Melanie decided to ignore the guy for now as she and Donny talked.
Later, as Melanie took her last bite of food, she elbowed Donny who was now sitting next to her. “Look at that guy over there. If he is trying to look inconspicuous, he isn’t doing a good job.”
Donny quickly glanced and then looked back at Melanie. The man certainly had a strange countenance, but he didn’t care. Tonight, he had something more important on his mind.
“Since there are so many freaks in this place why don’t we get out of here and go walk around the lake at the University?”
“Let’s go before the guy takes out a machine gun and kills us all,” she said jokingly.
They paid and left.
Marco watched them go and debated how long to wait before he left after them. After a few minutes he left. He had no idea which way they drove however, so he followed his instinct. It was no use, however. He couldn’t find them, so he drove back to his apartment and waited.
Meanwhile Donny drove to California Beach University and parked. It was hard to believe there was such a beautiful university in the middle of L.A. There were many trees and a lake people jogged around. The air seemed a lot cleaner in this small paradise surrounded by so much hustle.
As they were walking around the lake Donny was getting nervous. His palms were sweaty and his heart was palpitating. “Should I do it now?” She might not want to walk around it a second time,” he thought. They walked onto the bridge that crossed over the lake.
As they got to the halfway point on the bridge, he stopped her, and they were looking out over the lake. On the other side was the student commons area. Ducks were swimming in the water beneath them as children were throwing bread at them
“Melanie, I love you.” He said this as he pulled out a box from his pocket.
She was beginning to cry.
“The years we’ve been together have been the best of my life and I want to spend the rest of my life with you.” As he opened It, a beautiful diamond started sparkling in the sun. It was as though they were surrounded by millions of sparkling diamonds because the sun was sparkling off the lake as well. Melanie thought it was the most romantic experience she could ever have.
He asked, “if you want to be with me forever like I want to be with you…then…..will you marry me?”
“Yes! Yes! I will marry you.”
“I love you!”
“I love you too!”
When he was opening the box, Melanie noticed how hard his hand was shaking. She had never seen him this nervous. She was leaning against the railing with her left forearm and hand on it. After much shaking on his part, he finally got the ring out of the box with his right hand, and he was using his left hand to gently lift hers up so he could slide the ring onto her finger. He was shaking so hard the ring fell out of his hand and into the lake below!
“Donny!” she screamed.
“Oh no!” he looked at her shocked. The water was ten feet below the bridge they were on so he could not just reach out and grab it. The ring was quickly sinking into oblivion. He pulled off all his clothes except his underwear and jumped in.
“Donny!” Melanie kept screaming. “Be careful!”
He acted like he was feeling around for it for a couple of minutes. “I can’t find it. I’m getting tired. I’m going to swim over to the side.” The bridge they were on was too high up for him to reach and pull himself up. Melanie ran over to the side of the bridge to wait for him. There was a small gathering of about twenty people, and she couldn’t believe they were ignoring all that was going on. It was a good thing Donny was such a good swimmer she thought because these people would let him drown.
When he made it over to shore and pulled himself out Melanie asked, “you couldn’t find it?’
“No.”
“Maybe we can get some divers to go down there and look for it?”
“They would never find it, and besides,” he walked over to one of the chairs where some people were having a small get together and he pulled out another box from a jacket hanging on a chair, “this is the real ring!”
“Surprise!” a whole bunch of people said as they turned around. Melanie noticed her parents and Donny’s dad as well as many of their friends.
“That other ring wasn’t real?” Melanie asked with a confused and surprised look on her face.
He was beaming from ear to ear. “No. This is the real ring.”
He took it out of its case and placed it on her finger.
All their friends and family came over to congratulate them. Amused, Melanie told Donny to put his clothes back on.