“Follow me.” he murmured, as he grasped her hand and led her away.
“Where are we…,” she questioned apprehensively.
“Don’t say anything, I will show you. Trust me.”
Michael led her to a still, silent moonlit park, where they sat by the darkened lake together, he holding her in his arms, gently stroking her face. Sophie sighed in disbelief.
“Wow,” she muttered in incredulity. “This is truly spectacular. I’ve never seen anything as stunning as this before.”
Michael leaned gradually towards her, to gaze into her deep, mystifying brown eyes once again. “Would you care to dance?” he enquired.
“To think that I would deny such an offer,” she replied.
Michael took Sophie by the hand and led her to a large open space in the park. There they promenaded under the glittering stars for what Sophie felt must have been hours. A cool breeze swept across Sophie’s dazzling, youthful face. She shivered. Michael pulled her closer yet and Sophie could feel his warm, strong body against hers. Into her ear he whispered, “Do you believe in true love?”
“Oh yes,” she responded, sighing.
* * *
Sophie could not concentrate. Inside the stifling office, while her infuriating colleague Julia was persistently talking at her, all Sophie could think of was the previous night in the park with Michael. It had been so unbelievably breathtaking!
“Sophie…are you listening to me? I said could you run those copies through, if you could pull yourself away from your exceptionally important affairs for 10 minutes to do what you’re being paid to do,” Julia huffed angrily.
“Right…yes…terribly sorry Julia,” Sophie distractedly retorted.
Running copies for the newspaper was tediously dull and it was very easy to stray from the matter. Sophie just wanted to be back in Michael’s arms again.
“Sophie…there’s a very handsome man waiting for you at reception,” declared Julia.
“Oooh, really? Did he give his name?” Sophie queried.
“No…he…just asked for you,” she answered, “although, he did say it was somewhat of an emergency.”
The sound of bubbles reached Sophie’s ears. She swiftly turned, glancing at the water cooler. She looked at the surface of the container. All of a sudden, she was back in Michael’s arms, with the moonlight gently reflecting off the cool surface of the water, the ripples curving towards the edge of the lake.
A polite cough snapped her back to the reality of the dreary office. She saw a striking, dark haired man. The receptionist seemed to be having difficulty concentrating.
“Dad?” she said, startled, “What are you doing here?”
What was going on? Where was her beloved Michael? Why wasn’t he here now? She had been sure that when Julia mentioned the handsome man that there could only ever be one. She certainly hadn’t expected it to be her father.
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