How We Met
The best things in life sometimes appear from corners you never imagined. I had recently travelled to Dubai from Sweden and I couldn’t even begin to imagine that I will meet the love of my life in less than 3 month. On a Wednesday night in this plastic town, amongst people of the same template, suddenly a genuine man emerged on a dance floor with an energetic humble smile. He stunt me. It felt like he walked to me in slow-motion, as if he had no other reason to be there. He soon proved to be the purest soul I’ve known. He was wearing glasses that in fact were missing the glasses! He began with a simple “Cheers” and now to live with David is to say “Cheers” to life every single day.
He pulled his first test by making me believe he was a chauffeur of the luxury car he was driving. He even took it to the next level by convincing me that he shared a tiny house with five other people. Later I noticed this test was his way of ensuring that I liked him for himself not for his sport cars and fancy house. It made me feel proud of myself knowing the flamboyant priorities of Dubai hadn’t consumed my passion. There was more to David than what he owned. David is a creative lover and the kindest person I know. The only thing he seriously lacked creativity at was with cooking which was limited to wrestling with eggs for some fried eggs. That’s the reason our first date relocated to a restaurant from his kitchen.
Talk about not judging the book by its cover. My gem was found just there in Dubai. He never stopped astonishing me, always made me laugh except one time that he took pleasure in making me cry; the day he kneeled.
how they asked
David kneeled on my 25th birthday on a wooden boat just across where we first dated 3 years ago. It began with popping a bottle at home with couple of friends and his brother who had travelled a long way to be here ‘for my birthday’. I was feeling content. Not having the slimmest idea of what was about to happen, my only concern was the classical “should I wear black or white?” (which wore out as soon as I opened the gift that David’s mother had sent; A pink silky dress).
David was out ‘at the barber’ I thought, while he was in fact finishing installing a thousand floating balloons on the river. David drove us to this heavenly resort and we hopped on a cozy wooden boat heading for the restaurant. I should have suspected as to why nobody stepped into those empty boats or how David persuaded a man who posed as a curious ‘tourist’ to take so many photos of us, but I didn’t.
I thought it was just one of David’s many talents. The luxury lagoon zigzagged through tall trees and restaurants for minutes.
He stood me up and held my hand and said how much I meant to him. I began to feel the warmth of shimmering reflection of summer sun on my face. He said “You make my life more colourful, and I’ll show you in a minute”. I thought those were sweet wishes because of my birthday. And then my wishes of all birthdays came true. He said he loved me from the depth of his soul and took out a ring and kneeled.
The earth shook under my feet, I choked in awe, subbing, as a wave of joy rushed from tip of my toe straight to the crown of my head. I screamed yes early on the inside. He asked: “Linnea Hagström, will you marry me?” I could hear the commands my brain was whispering to my knees; “keep standing, do not fall!” I felt like the luckiest girl on earth. Even telling the story makes me feel my overwhelming love for him. I said yes in all 3 languages I knew. And his yet sweetest prank to follow (in a minute) gave me a chance to say “Yes” two more times out loud and a thousand times on the inside.
He earlier told me I made his life more colourful since we met and now the boat was taking the last turn to the secret romantic restaurant. It made me cry to see hundreds of colourful floating balloons covering the lagoon. I couldn’t keep up with reading the sweet messages on them. He always manages to proof that he means what he says. Just about to hand me the ring, he trembled and tripped and the ring fell into the water. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I didn’t even get a chance to wear my engagement ring! I could hardly get upset though because somehow I thought the ring was safe in the depth of that river. It was meant to be a promise and on my finger or in the water meant almost the same to me.
Having dropped the ring into the river, David apologised and continued by taking out a metal loop from his keychain and asked me: “Will you still marry me as a ‘poor man’ without a ring?”. I am now overwhelmed again and shaking when I get to say “Yes” again (humming to myself: my beloved David, my lovely and creative gentleman). Then we joyfully strolled to the restaurant, to the private dining area with many more balloons.
I thought he was joking when he asked the staff if they had a diamond ring since ours was lost in the river a few minutes ago. But to our shock, there it was the whole time. They handed him the real ring engraved with the unique symbol of our love in a red box. This time my joy and love for him had an additional dimension seeing him kneel for the third time. I was thrilled not only because I got a chance to say “Yes” for the third time but also because he proved to me and himself that I’d marry him with a keychain or diamond all the same.
