Sweeter Than Wine

Half the Adventure

After a couple minutes of idle chat, Paul suddenly puts his hands over my eyes. I let out a surprise squeak, "what's this for?"

"It's so you don't see the surprise!" John says excitedly. I smile, "you're building this up pretty high, Mr. it better pay out!" John squeezes my hands and leans in, "it definitely will. Don't you worry, love."

After a few moments of silence, I feel the car slow and Paul removes his hands from my eyes.

A grin slowly spreads across my face as the realization of where I am hits me. Paul slides out of the car allowing me to follow suit.

My eyes excitedly take in the glorious sight before me. "Who came up with this?" I ask, not taking my eyes off of the array of colors before me.

"This one was all me, my darling, here, you may want to change into these." George speaks and hands me a pair of black flats.

"The heels were to throw you off the scent." George says and winks. I grin and hug him tightly, "thank you so much, you know how much I love flowers." He kisses me on the temple, "I do."

I hop into the car to change my shoes quickly. The second I'm finished I run straight to the botanical garden entrance.

George pays for our tickets as I impatiently look out the large windows trying to get a glimpse of the gardens below.

"Come on love, let's go look at them up close." George takes my hand and leads me to the garden entrance.

We slowly wind our way trough the towering rose bushes. George stops under an arch and pulls me close, whispering into my ear, "none of these flowers compare to you, my love." I giggle and stand on my tip toes to kiss him properly.

We walk further along a path coming to a very large koi pond with  hundreds of fish swimming about. I stand on the bridge, leaning over watching the bright whites and oranges flurry by. "They're so gorgeous Georgie! Look at that one!" I shout, pointing at one looking up at us, patiently waiting for food.

John walks up to us, "here, I just talked that nice lady over there into giving us some food for them." John hands me some pellets.

I smile widely as I toss a few in, watching my newfound friend gobble them up in an instant. I toss the rest to various others that swam up to us in the meantime.

"This is wonderful George, it really is!" I say clasping my hands in front of my chest. He smiles softly, "I'm glad you're enjoying yourself darling." He leans in pecking my lips softly.

He glances up at the slowly darkening sky as Paul whispers something into his ear.

"Okay love, let's go on to the next area." George glances between the others nodding ever so slightly. The other three sprint ahead of us, disappearing into the distance.

I raise my eyebrows, but let it be. "I love the fall. It's my favorite time of year." I sigh softly, looking up at the colored leaves in the tree canopy above us. George slips his arm around my waist, "it is a magical time, isn't it?" I nod against his shoulder, sighing contentedly.

Suddenly he stops, "do you trust me, ________?"

"Of course I do, Geo." I say with a soft smile. "Good." He says with a playful grin as he loosens his tie.

"Stay still love." He whispers lowly in my ear as he secures his tie loosely around my eyes.

I giggle as George slowly leads me down the winding path. After a minute we stop and George removes my makeshift blindfold.

I'm absolutely floored by the sight before me. A wide garden filled with hundreds of different lilies fills my vision. Hundreds of twinkling fairy lights illuminate the darkening garden.