Beach
For a long time, I had mostly seen beaches in movies and some adverts; I had not been to any before. I had even thought that beaches were relegated to mostly oceans or seas, but I just found out that even small water bodies like lakes or rivers could have beaches. If this information is correct, then I've been on a beach longer recently, I guess, because my village is mostly surrounded by rivers, and I believe the parts that are usually sandy that we use to get into boats could pass for a beach, even though not so functional.
My girlfriends and I had planned a little get-together; it was actually to celebrate Steph's birthday; it was her big day, and we wanted to make it a memorable one for her by surprising her with a little merriment. We had planned the outing for a while and we were all looking forward to it, although Steph was oblivious to what we had planned out for her.
While we were making preparations for D-day, one particular Saturday evening, my phone rang; I picked it up and saw it was Steph's boyfriend, Stanley. I picked up the call, and we exchanged pleasantries;
"Please I want to find out the exact beach that you girls will be having you hang out" Stanley said to me.
I was surprised as I expected him to have asked his girlfriend
"Isn't this question supposed to be directed to Steph? " I asked him.
It was at this point he opened up and told me that he was planning a surprise engagement for her, and wanted to do it on that particular day. Upon hearing about the engagement I squealed with joy, this news was indeed a good one, I know how long Steph and Stanley have been together because they are both my friends, they've been through several ups and downs, and their love had stood the test of time, and to hear that they would be getting married was heartwarming.
He was actually calling to ask for my help as in our friend circle, I and Steph were the closest. We kept making preparations. Of course, he asked not to tell the others, not like he had anything against them, but you know how when so many people are aware of something, the chances of the surprise being ruined would be greater, hence the discretion.
In the course of the preparations, I was caught in the middle, I had to show up for my friends concerning the mini party we were organizing, and I also had to help Stanley with the whole setup for the engagement, so it was all overwhelming, but I had to show up all through.
Stanley had called me the other day,
"Jane do have any idea the size of Steph's finger, because I am at the store and I'm very confused".
"I think you should go a size 5 as Steph doesn't really have big fingers ".
"Oh thank you so much Jane, I don't what I would do without you", we jokingly laughed the whole thing off and the ring was bought.
the person who would be in charge of the decor was contacted, and all that was needed arrangements were made for them; we were just waiting for the day.
During one of those days while I was running around Steph called me and I told her I was in the middle of something, she said "I think Stanley is hiding something from me",
"How do you mean? " I asked her.
"He's been behaving weird, acting busy all the time like he doesn't really want talk or see me for long, and I don't know why" she said.
I had to ask her if she had confronted him, and she said no, that she hadn't gotten the right opportunity to do that. I was almost on the verge of spewing everything to her, but I had to pinch myself to keep quiet and just console of how awesome Stanley had been over time, that he couldn't possibly be hiding anything bad from her.
The day finally came, Friday the 21st of September. I told myself I wasn't going to go to bed until I had wished my baby girl a happy birthday. By 12 am, I picked up my phone and called Steph
"Happy Birthday babe,"
"Oh thank you babygirl" she responded excitedly, I wished her long life and said a prayer or two for her, we also talked for a while about how she was grateful for the gift of life and other random things before we ended the call and continued with our sleep.
We all got ready, we decided that were all going to go to the beach earlier than Steph, and asked that she meet us there by 6 pm since she lived farther than the rest of us, when we got there we made the finishing touches, made sure the food, drinks and DJ were ready. I had to excuse myself at some point to go check up on the setting of the engagement area. The idea was to have our surprise party for her, then towards the end of the evening, Stanley would show up and then excuse her and take her to the part of the beach that had the setup for the engagement which was not so far from where the party would be happening.
When Steph arrived at the beach, where we told her to meet us, when she got there, we all stood with a birthday cake and screamed Happy Birthday!!! , she couldn't help herself, she just kept on shouting and staring at us, telling us thank you and that she loved us, it was an emotional moment for us all.
After the grand entrance, the party began properly, and we ate, danced, and played different games; it was turning out to be a fine evening as we all hoped, we sang the Happy Birthday song for the birthday girl, and she cut her cake. She was very emotional, telling us how we made her day, and we were like, “if we don't make her day”, who will?
While the evening was wearing out Stanley popped in from nowhere and Steph was really surprised and happy to see him.
"Babe how come you're here?" She asked him, as she was surprised to see him.
He then jokingly and lovingly told her "I can't miss your birthday dinner at the beach for anything, and she smiled.
"Babe please can I show you something briefly? " Stanley asked her, and they both excused themselves.
We all had seen the setup earlier, and we were all excited for the person who would be engaged even though they all didn't know who it was going to be.
When we all saw them heading to that setup we had all seen earlier, we were puzzled, only to see Stanley go down on his knees, we all had to leave what we were doing and run to have a clearer view of what was happening, we could see the shock on Steph's face and she was already sobbing.
"Will You Marry Me???" Stanley popped the question.
Everyone around started shouting, "say yes", "say yes".
"Of course I will my love" she replied.
Chorus of clapping and shouting rang along the beach as they both hugged themselves, while Stanley also planted a kiss on her lips.
So we had two celebrations that day, a birthday party and an engagement party; they kept asking how Stanley was able to pull it off and confessed that he had some help from me; Steph immediately ran to me and hugged me and told me thank you for everything.
This is my submission for the Collaboration between #Dreemport and #ScholarandScribe community.
Thanks for stopping by ❤