Love Hearts and Marigolds

The warmth of Danny’s car had finally started to thaw Lisa’s frozen limbs. For the third anniversary in a row now, Danny had picked Lisa up and driven them to the pond behind the old barn on the property where he lived as a young boy with his parents, until his father had died.

The house remained unoccupied after the auction and had slowly fallen into ruin over the years. It broke Danny’s heart to see but he was happy he could visit the old house without being harassed by the new owner.

Lisa reminisced about their first date and how she knew that Danny was 'the one' when he arrived with a bunch of marigolds for her. She even remembered the embarrassed look he gave her when he handed her the bouquet apologizing that they weren’t traditional first date flowers like roses.

How he seemed embarrassed to explain that they weren’t as pretty or fragrant as other flowers but to farmers marigolds were far more precious than any other flower because they helped protect the crops from pests. Then he said something that Lisa found very moving. He always gave marigolds to people he wanted to keep safe and protect. Just as his father had always done with his mother.

As they meandered down the country road with the sun setting behind them Lisa knew what to expect. Every year Danny organized the same anniversary present to celebrate their first official date by re-enacting it. He always headed out earlier that day with a table and chairs and set up a romantic dinner setting in his parents’ old barn.

He would’ve already set the table and there would be two wine glasses and a bottle of red wine sitting on it and a vase with marigolds too. As they neared the old farmhouse Danny would ask Lisa to close her eyes, but she would only close them enough to make him think they were closed and he knew it too but never said anything.

Then Danny would park the car behind the farmhouse in front of the old barn. He would rush around to the passenger door making sure Lisa still had her eyes closed and then lead her to the barn and only then would he allow her to open her eyes.

This time of year, the pond would be frozen, so after offering Lisa a glass of wine and some nibblies, Danny would go outside and start the bonfire he had prepared earlier. He would cook their meal on the open fire and then after dinner they would go ice-skating.

Danny would play music from his car stereo as they enjoyed skating hand in hand by the moonlight around the pond together. Then they would snuggle by the fire and warm themselves and drink a little more wine before Danny drove them home again.

This year was no different. Danny and Lisa sat at the table enjoying the meal of roast chicken and vegetables that Danny had cooked over the open fire. There was something about the taste of food cooked over an open fire that just couldn’t be replicated. Even Lisa’s mother, a Michelin chef had never served up something so mouth watering tasty like this before. Lisa let the last bite of her meal melt in her mouth.

“Shall, we skate on the pond” Danny asked as he wiped his mouth with a napkin. He stood up and held his hand out to Lisa.

“Yes.” Lisa stood up and took Danny’s hand.

Danny and Lisa walked out the back of the barn towards the bonfire, sat down and put their skates on.

“Wait.” Danny said as he jumped up and raced to the car. He opened the door and turned the radio on, so they had music to skate to.

After putting their skates on Danny took Lisa’s hand once more and lead her onto the ice where they slowly glided around hand in hand. As they were skating along Lisa noticed that there was some kind of orange stuff scattered all over one part of the frozen pond. She was enjoying the moment so much she didn’t give it a second thought.

Danny slowly guided Lisa over towards the orange stuff and Lisa started to realize that there were marigold petals scattered all over the pond.

“Did you scatter marigold petals on the pond?” Lisa looked up at Danny as they were gliding along. Danny just smiled and steered her closer to the petals.

He’s never scattered petals on the pond before. Lisa thought to herself as they swished through the petals sending them floating into the air.

As they glided along it became obvious to Lisa that Danny was steering her towards the center of the pond. As they approached the center Lisa noticed that some of the ice was pinkish in color.

Oh no, has something come to a grizzly end on the ice? Lisa thought to herself. She was trying not to look too closely. She didn’t particularly want her romantic evening interrupted by the morbid sight of a poor dismembered animal. This area was well known for wild dog attacks.

Lisa was squinting her eyes in an effort to filter whatever tragedy lay before her when Danny slipped over and was sliding on one knee in front of her.

“Oh my god are you ok?” Lisa started to skate a little faster towards Danny to help him get up but before she could get there he turned around while kneeling, sliding on one knee holding his arms up in front of him.

As Lisa looked closer, she noticed that Danny had a small box in his hands and as she looked even closer, he flipped the lid of the box open to reveal a sparkling diamond ring.

“Will you marry me?” Danny smiled nervously, despite the evening being freezing cold, a small bead of sweat had collected on his forehead.

Lisa looked at Danny completely stunned, she had stopped skating and Danny had stopped sliding. Lisa looked down and realized that they had stopped in the middle of the pinkish color. It was only then that she noticed they were stopped in the middle of a love heart that had been drawn on the ice.

“Did you draw this too?” Lisa looked around herself.

“Yes.” Danny smiled. Lisa was still lost for words. “Will you marry me?” Danny asked again, still holding the diamond ring out in front of him.

“Yes.” Lisa smiled. “Yes of course.” She glided towards Danny. Danny rose to his feet, took Lisa’s hand and put the ring on it. It fit perfectly. Fortunately, he had been sneaky enough to measure one of her other dress rings for size.

Lisa threw her arms around Danny and hung of him in a hug.

“Shall we go back to the bonfire to warm up and have a glass of wine.” Danny whisper in Lisa's ear as he put down.

“Yes, that sounds lovely.” Lisa admired the ring on her finger. It was lovely. Danny had done well picking something that was to her taste.

Hand in hand they slowly gilded back to where the bonfire was burning. Danny helped Lisa with her skates and then poured them both a glass of wine and they sat snuggled by the fire.

“I have one more very important question to ask you.” Danny looked at Lisa with a serious face.

“OK.” Lisa took the wine glass away from her lips.

“Can I finally introduce my mom to your dad? It’s been three years. I don’t think I can fob her off any longer. Particularly now there is a wedding coming. It's pretty serious” Danny smiled.

“Yes, I think we are finally serious enough that I can introduce your mom to my dad.” Lisa smiled as she raised her glass to Danny. “To our wonderful future together.”

“To our wonderful future together.” Danny chinked his glass with Lisa then pulled her in closer to him as they snuggled by the warmth of the dancing light of the fire.