Forever Or Never

The blind date

I walked into the overpopulated room, eyes turned and stared at me as I barged my way through the riveting crowd. I could smell the different aromas of presume and sweat as I made my way towards the front desk. I remember the first time I had come to this restaurant, which was the day my life changed forever.
5 years earlier.
"Eve, please you have to just try, you have been single for too long now.
Please just meet him"
"But I don't feel like I am ready Nancy, I know you are trying to be a good big sister;
but I'm really not ready"
"please Eve; he thinks you are coming now"
"fine; where am I meeting him?"
"at the Knife's Edge; thank you Eve"
"that's okay; love you sis"
"love you too."
I hung up the phone and placed it back into the pocket of my beaten up jeans. Two hours had passed and I still felt like I wasn't ready to go on a blind date, not this soon after Ashton Pattinson anyway. I got changed into my black Hepburn dress with a red elastic belt; I then began to do my makeup before I left my flat to go to Knife's Edge restaurant.
Present Day.
He walked towards me struggling to get through the crowd that surrounded the restaurant; I could see his eyes skimming the room looking for mine. His hair flopped from side to side at every desperate turn of his head in his search to find me. Finally his blue eyes met mine as I looked towards him; his cheeks turned a crimson red as a rush of embarrassment flooded his face. He began to push with all his strength; his muscles tensed as his arms wrapped around my waist, pulling me up towards the sky and closer to his muscular body. Our bodies were a finger width apart; it felt like Christmas had come early to be in his arms once again. He leaned in and his lips touched mine; they were warm, damp and comforting, they felt like that every time we kissed. Both our lips parted, leaving me feeling breathless, anxious and funnily secure. He always had a way of making me feel as light as a feather and like we were the only two in the room, he made me feel like I was the only one in the world that mattered.
"Sorry to break up your little moment guys, but we are quite busy if you hadn't noticed" said the short, black haired middle aged lady behind the front desk.
We both turned and looked at the lady, she looked familiar, I was sure of it. Oh that was it she was the lady who showed me to my table 5 years ago, only back then she was younger and paler.
"Sorry Chloe" I said looking down at her name tag.
"That's okay m'dear, hang on I know you two don't I?" she replied softly.
"Yes you served us 5 years ago" I stated quickly.
Chloe lead us to our table after we had finished booking it, we were sat at the far end of the restaurant. Chloe had sat me in the same seat I was in the first time I was here.
5 years earlier.
"Hi I'm Eve Carmichael, I have a table for two booked!" I had stated to Chloe.
"oh yes Mrs Carmichael, where is the other member of your party?" Chloe had asked.
"I'm not sure, I'm here on a blind date" I had said with embarrassment surfing its way across my face
Chloe showed me to my seat and placed my menu on the table. The restaurant was made of brown oak and so were the tables, it gave of a lovely polished aroma. I retrieved the menu off of the polished oak table and began to read it. A dull looking man who wore a tedious grey suit approached me as I was deciding on which drink to order.
"Hey I'm Jake Simpson" he said with tension building up in his voice.
"oh hello Jake, I'm Eve are you my blind date?" I anxiously whispered, so that the people on the table next to me couldn't hear, as they already seemed interested in my conversation with the dark, handsome stranger. He drew out the seat opposite me and bellowed his answer.
"off course not, sorry that was loud and very rude of me, hello Eve"
At this time I was curious as to what Jake Simpson actually wanted and where my date was.
"okay, so what do you actually then?" I asked trying not to sound pushy as once again the feeling of embarrassment surfed its way across my face.
"I wanted to ask why a good looking young lady like you was sitting all on her own?" he replied, with a puzzled look on his outstandingly gorgeous face.
"well my sister Nancy set me up on a blind date, so here I am waiting for him to turn up" I uttered
I spent the rest of the night talking to Jake, I think I had seen my date during the night but I am not too sure if it was him or not. By 11:00 we had, had a few drinks and I was ready to go home. Unfortunately I actually can't remember going home because I was too drunk; all I can remember was getting into Jake's car and driving past plenty of trees and buildings. About 12 hours later I had woke up, but I wasn't in my flat I was in Jake's
. He had a baby blue sofa, a disco ball hanging from his ceiling, pictures of what must've been his family hanging on the walls surrounding the apartment and a mirror dangling in one of the corners of the room above a bookshelf. As I walked into the kitchen there was a vase with flowers in it on the table and brightly coloured vintage kitchen essentials like toasters and coffee makers. The table was a dirty pine colour and the chairs were pine with black leather cushions covering them, the kitchen lead to the balcony of the flat.
Jakes flat seemed to be very small compared to mine and it was very vintage.
"hay; how are you feeling?" he pronounced, as he crept up behind me putting his arms around my waist for the first time.
"I'm fine thanks" I replied
"would you like breakfast?" he asked
"yes please, um this is going to sound weird but did we you know... have sex?" I added.
"no we didn't, I brought you here because you were too drunk to drive and I'm not one of those guys who take advantage of drunk women." He clarified, softly trying not to hurt my head in the process.
"okay; thank you that was very kind" I stated "if that was anyone else they would've taken advantage of me."
I spent the next few days getting to know Jake as a person and I had a lot of fun doing so. We took strolls through the park, went out for dinner again, we went to the cinema and he even came over to my flat for dinner and a movie.  Weeks had passed and I had fallen in love with Jake, he taught me many things, showed me things that I had never seen before; including a room in his apartment that was full of stuff I had never thought I would see all together before. We had gone to a few family dos and friend's parties before Jake asked me to be his girlfriend.
The day of my sister's engagement party we finally decided to my family and his that we were a couple.
I spent the next 5 years with Jake, which brought us to where we are today. Even now kissing him felt like the first time we kissed all over again.
"can you believe that this time 5 years ago we had only just met?" I asked, after removing my lips from Jake's
"no I can't; it has been so long and the best time of my life and yet every time we kiss it feels like the first time all over again." Jake affirmed.
Chloe brought over our menus and we ordered our meals, I ordered Spaghetti Bolognese and Jake had ordered a steak, with egg and fries and some salad on the side. We ate our dinners with the conversation constantly flowing in and out of different subjects and memories of our 5 years together, eventually it was time to order dessert; we ordered one dessert to share as a couple. As the waiter placed the dessert on the table, I noticed something shiny inside of the cream. I scoped the shiny object out of the cream and wiped clean... It was an engagement ring.
"OH MY GOSH" I exclaimed with excitement bursting right out of me. Tears began to trickle down my face as I stared down at the diamond encrusted ring. Jake took the ring from my hands and kneeled down on one knee beside me.
"Eve, you have changed my life massively from the time I intruded on your blind date to know, you have taught me how to love and you have shown me that it is okay to be vulnerable and scared at times. You make me feel like nothing else matters but us, from the moment I saw that lonely young lady sitting. in this exact spot 5 years ago, I fell in love and I continue to fall deeper in love with you every day; Eve Carmichael will you make me the happiest man for eternity and do me the honours of becoming my wife?" he declared.
I sat for a few seconds frozen from the shock of his proposal, with a thousand  thoughts running through my mind at once.
"yes; yes I would love to be your wife, for as long as we live. ."