You walked up the stairs in to your house, exhausted from work. The only thing you could think of was getting inside to see Benedict, today had been an awful, long, exhausting day. When you opened the door, you called out.
"Benedict, sweetie, I'm home."
No reply. Your heart started to race, he was always there to greet you when you got home from work. 7 years of dating, 5 years of living together, and he never failed to greet you every morning and every time you returned from somewhere. You walked around the house and checked every room, but he wasn't there.
"He must have gone out somewhere," panicked hoping in your voice.
Suddenly you felt your phone vibrate in your right pocket, it was a text message from Benedict. It read, "Will you please check the bed side table? I think I left a paper there, and I need it."
You sighed, just glad to hear that he was okay and had an errand to run. As soon as you had placed your purse on the couch, you began to make your way upstairs. Once you reached the bedroom, you made your way to the bed side table. Sitting on top of the table was a note, folded neatly with a name printed on top, your name. You unfolded it and started reading.
"Thank you for listening to my text. Now could you please go to the local coffee shop and get me a latte, I'll meet up with you soon. Love you, Benedict."
"That man. What would he do if he didn't have me," you laughed, turning to go downstairs.
You grabbed your purse back off the couch and started walking towards the coffee shop. One of the perks of having a house in the city was being able to walk places.
As you entered the coffee shop, the store owner, Giovanni, greeted you with a smile.
"What can I get you today, miss?"
"One latte for Benedict," you smiled. "Poor man can't even manage to get his own coffee without my help."
He laughed at you and smiled. After you paid, you walked to the other end of the counter to get Ben's drink.
"Here you go," Giovanni handed you the latte. "Oh and Benedict asked for me to give you this-" He handed you a note, folded and signed the same way as the one in the bedroom.
You stared at it in awe. "Th-thank you," you stammered, walking towards the door.
Once you made it outside you unfolded the second note.
"Thank you for the coffee. Remember when we met? I bumped in to you in this exact same coffee shop. You were reading and I left you a note with my telephone number. You were the most exquisite beauty I had ever seen, and you still are," your cheeks flushed bright red. "Could you go down to the park and find our friend, Amelia? She has something for me that I need. Thank you again, my darling. Love you, Benedict."
"Goodness, me. He is just having me run all of his errands, isn't he?"
Regardless of how ridiculous it sounded, you made your way toward the park. When you got there, you weren't quite sure where to go, so you started walking along the path. You eventually came up on the only bench along the path, and saw Amelia sitting there with a giant smile on her face.
"Good evening, Amy. Benedict said you had something for him."
Without a word, Amy stood up and handed you a note, just like the previous two, and walked away. You stared after her before sitting down to open the note.
"What on earth is he up to with these notes?"
"Wow. I didn't expect for you to play along this far. Thank you for coming to meet Amelia for me. Do you remember when we were sitting on this same bench? It was our first date. I was awfully nervous, shaking the entire time."
"So was I, my love," you mumbled to yourself.
"Would you please do me a few last favours? Could you please go by the library and pick up a book for me? Just ask the clerk, she'll know what to give you. Love you, Benedict."
Before getting up to walk over to the library, you sat on the bench and took in the nostalgia that exuded from every surface of this park. There were lots of romantic picnics and walks to remember, kisses in the rain and under the street lamps. Everything here was lovely.
You got up from the bench and wiped the tears that had begun to fall from your eyes. "Guess I just get overwhelmed at all of the emotions here." You turned to walk to the library.
When you walked in the doors, the librarian looked at you and said, "I thought you would never show up!" She winked and handed me a book. "Hope this is what Benedict wanted."
You mumbled a thank you before walking out the door. "No more notes?" You asked. As you said that, another folded note fell from the book you were holding.
"Thought so," you smiled.
"Thank you, ever so much, my dear. Remember when we were at this library. You needed to study for exams and I missed you so we came here together. I helped you, too." You smiled, remebering every moment of that night with perfect accuracy. "And then we were told to leave by the librarian. Took us nearly an hour to say goodbye. Remember that? We both just had so much more to say, and we couldn't take our eyes off each other, and, then, right before you turned to leave, I grabbed your face and kissed you. Our first kiss. That night is on my top ten favourite nights list. Anyways, I'd just like to ask one more favour of you. Could you please come downtown and meet me by the fountains? Love you, Benedict."
"Finally, I've reached the end of this madness," you laughed, walking towards the inner-city.
After walking for about a mile, you saw the fountain, and Benedict standing in front of it. There was an unusally large crowd at the fountain today.
"I bet he planned for it to be busy when I got here, can't just have us being alone somewhere quiet."
Once you reached the fountain, Ben greeted you with a soft kiss on the lips. "Hello, love. How was your day?"
"Awful, exhausting, and it only got worse when you sent me on a mad chase all over town," you smacked his arm with the book you were holding.
He chuckled, "I guess I deserve that then. I am terribly sorry, though. I didn't know you had had a rough day, forgive me?"
You smiled, "Of course I forgive you," you paused, "As long as you'll rub my feet when we get home."
He smiled at you, "It's only fair."
The two of you stood in silence for a while before Benedict spoke up again.
"I suppose you're wondering why I sent you on this mad chase all over town?"
"Indeed, I am."
He smiled. "If you didn't notice, there was something very specific about the places I sent you to. The place I first saw you, the place we had our first date, the place we had our first kiss."
Tears began to well up in your eyes thinking about all of the memories the two of you shared. "Yes, I was rather quick to catch on." A tear fell from your right eye. "I actally began to cry some thinking of all of the beautiful memories we've shared together."
As soon as you said this, he began to cry as well, "I know. I've had to most perfect 7 years with my best friend by my side."
You smiled up and him and began to cry harder.
He seemed to be unable to choke out what he wanted to say. After a moment, he found his words, "And I want for there to be more." You stood there in utter shock and he dropped down to one knee before you, tears pouring from your eyes. "I want to spend every waking second of the rest of my days with the one person I love most in this entire universe. I want to have a million good morning's and a million hello's but not a single goodbye. I want to spend every night cuddled up to you, feeling your warmth and love. I want to have grow old together." Tears were streaming down his face, he cleared his throat, "Will you marry me?"
You couldn't speak, there was a giant lump in your throat. You nodded your head, beaming, as he placed a small engagement ring on your left ring finger. He wrapped his arms around your waist and kissed you, pressing you against his body.
"I love you," you smiled at him.
"I love you, too," he flashed you your favourite smile.
"Now let's get home," you whispered, pulling away from him. "I'm ready for my foot rub."
He laughed and grabbed your hand, intertwining your fingers, and you two walked away from that spot to go make more beautiful memories that neither of you would ever forget.