Picture Perfect

We sat on a rock on the riverbank, legs stretched out in the brown water the tiny waves carried to the bank. I stole glances at her every now and then. She played with the water with her button-eyes gleaming with a childlike joy. A few mischievous strands of her hair played on the wind. Small beads of water glistened on her cheeks. A faint content smile on her face just completed the perfect picture for me. A smile so beautiful that something ached near my heart every time I saw it...

She was sitting a foot away from me yet she seemed so far. I wished we weren't just friends. It happened so many times that my feelings reached the tip of my tongue and I restrained them just in time... How could she not see the eyes that were only for her.. The heart that burnt with passion everyday... Being just friends was killing me. How I wish she were mine...

I looked at the river. The sun reflected in its waters that now shone like molten gold. A flock of birds flew with their wings outstretched in the distant skies.

"Hey! Look at this! Almost like your ultimate dream! Oh, if only it were the sea you always imagine!" I said to her, snapping back to the reality, showing her the glittering water.

She looked out in the distant horizon. "I told you about that dream too! Seriously! I tell you everything!" she said, half-surprised, half-bemused.

"Of course you do! You know how much we talk?? I have six thousand messages in my inbox!" I told her, "That are only yours, sent to me. Add my replies to them!"

"Oh God!" she exclaimed, "People would think we are crazy!"

A moment passed in silence, punctuated only by the pleasant sound of water as she rocked her legs absent-mindedly.

"Do you imagine what would happen when finally we would have to stop talking like this?" she asked in a low voice, not looking at me.

I sighed deeply. Of course I had imagined that a million times. At nights when I lay awake in my bed, I always imagined the time when it would be the end of our crazy friendly conversations that continued all the time till one of us fell asleep midway into typing a reply. Someday, she would be a part of someone else's life and then I would be nothing but some silly guy she wouldn't even know loved her. An afterglow...

"Yes." I admitted truthfully, staring at the water at my feet, "You realise, don't you? One day all our crazy conversations will have to stop. One day you will find the guy of your dreams and all."

She did not look up. She spoke in a slightly heavy voice, squirming uncomfortably, "I am never going to marry if that's the case." She folded her arms across her chest like a haughty child.

I gaped at her. She must be kidding. "This is crazy." I told her.

"Yes. But I have an idea. Here's the deal!" she said quickly, not giving me any time to think, with a sudden mischievous expression on her face, "By the time I decide to marry, if I don't find anyone I am comfortable with, we will marry. Is it fine!?"

Whoa! Please don't do this to me, I wanted to tell her. A slightest budding hope in my heart could kill me later. But wasn't this exactly all I wanted? That place in her life that I dreamt of, day and night.

"What happened?" she asked with a faltering smile and a slightly disappointed tone, "What do you think?"

"I will be honoured, my lady!" I smiled at her. 'Honoured! Dudette, do you have any idea how crazy I am about you!', I wanted to say. Her smile returned. She still looked uncomfortable as if she was about to say something but she seemed to have decided against it.

Another moment passed in silence. Our eyes met briefly before she looked at the horizon.

"Hey, but when is the latest you will decide to get married?" I enquired curiously, seriously considering her deal but making it sound casual to her.

She paused for a moment, cleared her throat and replied, "Tomorrow?"

It took me full five seconds to realise what she meant.

"You mean... I.. You... Are you... Are you saying I am the one???" I stuttered, turning to her in disbelief.

"Oh. Finally!! Stupid! You got it!" she said, shaking her head in mock exasperation with her face blushing red.

"I don't believe it! God! And you are the one who asked!" I said breathlessly. My heart did a hundred somersaults and I couldn't feel my legs.

She looked relieved and grinned. Her voice shook a little with emotions when she talked further, "And for your information- watching the sun glowing in the waters at the meeting point of three oceans is not my ultimate dream anymore... It's been you for quite a long time now.."

I was at the loss for words. There were so many things I wanted to tell her, so many confessions to make but that could wait for the time being... We would have a lifetime to do that.

"You know what?" I asked her when I could talk without stuttering.

"What?" she asked with a nod. Her earrings oscillated a little with that tiny jerk. I could have forgotten what I had to say.

"I never had a dream. Till I met you."

That was the happiest day of my life.