Dream On

Standing in front of the table, I looked at Lisa. She still hadn’t turned her eyes toward me. Her two friends looked at me and saw that I was looking at Lisa. Almost at the same time, both of them nudged her. Her eyes met mine and for the next few seconds, time stopped. She just looked into my eyes and never spoke. The music was still in its early stages and Lionel hadn’t started singing yet. Almost like an involuntary action, I extended my hand to Lisa but never said a word. To my surprise, she stood up and extended her hand to meet mine. Did I have butterflies? We’re talking Monarch butterflies here, ok?

Almost as if an unseen force was guiding me, we walked to the dance floor. I took her in my arms and we started dancing. This wasn’t the typical slow dance where you only move about 5 feet and continue to turn in circles with less than in inch separating you and your partner. I have watched ballroom dancing on public broadcasting and I loved the way they move. Lisa and I danced all around the floor in the ballroom dancing style. My eyes never left her and when the second verse of the song started, I decided that even though I couldn’t sing worth a damn, I was going to do it anyway. As I started singing, Lisa started to smile. We continued to dance when I realized that her hand left hand had moved from my shoulder to being behind my neck. I was singing to her softly but was lost in the bliss of her touch. I kept singing softly and we danced around the dance floor when I realized that there was no one else on the floor but us! Normally, in a situation such as this, I would get scared and stop dancing in utter embarrassment. But what happened was just the opposite. I took Lisa and started dancing like I had never danced before. The volume of my singing voice escalated. Here I was dancing with the most beautiful woman I have ever known and serenading her at the same time. I was in heaven! The song was beginning to wind down and I didn’t want it to end. I wanted to dance like this with her for as long as possible. I didn’t want to let her go. Never looking away from her eyes, the song was in it’s last few seconds when I saw something that I never thought I would see. In the corner of her left eye, I saw what I thought to be a tear. I blinked to make sure that what I was seeing wasn’t a mirage. In the nanosecond it took to blink, I saw a stream from her eye. It was a tear that I saw after all and seeing that made me shed a tear too.

As the song ended, everyone around the dance floor was clapping and shouting for an encore. I was impervious to all this. Only one thing mattered to me and she was right in front of me. She took a step towards me and placed her arms around me. I thought I would have a heart attack! I placed my arms around her to give her a hug but was unsure how she would take it even after the dance and serenade. She loosened her hug on me and leaned back to look at me eye to eye. I had always wanted her to say something to me, but was resigned to the fact that I would probably never hear her say it. An hour seemed to pass as she closed her eyes for a few seconds, sighed, produced a slight grin, and reopened her eyes. She interlocked her hands behind my neck. Even thought the decibel level in the bar was louder than you can ever imagine, I heard her say something to me as clear as a bell.

“I love you.” she said

I woke up right after she said it. And believe it or not, I was crying.

Lisa, believe it or not, I do love you very much. I can only pray that maybe one-day, my dream will come true.