Holding hands with my prince charming and walking along the beach while sunset was my dream since teenage and the dream came true. Karthik held my hand with immense love and talked about his new project as we walked along the sea shore.

While talking, sometimes he would look at me and say, “You look beautiful.” And other compliments like that.

One hand in his and the other holding my slippers, I was happy to see my dream come true. I listened to his words carefully and gave him my opinion when he asked. It was the second-best day in my life till date, the best day was the day he had proposed me.

“Avni, When I look at you, I forget the world and when I see the world, I remember you. Day and night, it’s just you who resides in my mind. It’s just you whose face ends my dreams in the morning and starts with at night. It you and only you whom I want to see when I get up every morning.

It’s you who gives me the strength to do things I never thought I’d do. It’s your support which gives me the confidence to face the interviews. It’s your smile that brightens my mood, even in the dull and gloomy days. It’s your laugh that brings shivers down my spine but, in a nice way.

I could give up anything and everything for you because it’s you whom I want to spend the rest of my life with.

So, Miss. Avni Mehra, will you marry me and make me the happiest man alive?”

Every sentence he spoke made my heart swell with happiness and brought tears to my eyes. Yes, I always wanted him to propose me. I had loved him for the past two years but, I thought he was oblivious to it. So, I never made a move.

When he had called me in the morning, he seemed upset. Being the good friend I am, I had asked him what was wrong. He’d told me to come over to the café where we would sit and discuss everything. I knew he liked a girl and had planned to propose her. For a moment, I thought that she may have rejected his proposal that made him upset.

As happy I felt about it, I had to keep a neutral and straight face in front of him.

The moment I stepped inside the café, all I could see was roses. There were plenty of them which covered almost every inch of the room. There were people playing violin at one corner.

The scene made me think whether I was the girl he had fallen in love with. But then I remembered, the other day he had done something like this for the sake of playing a prank on me. I had kept my face neutral without any expression or hope.

You could imagine how happy I was when he bent down on one knee and proposed to me in the best way possible. Karthik was never the romantic type, but he knew how much I loved romantic guys. I felt on top of the world because he had taken all that effort just to propose to me in a romantic way. I know that to the world it wasn’t the best way but, for me it was.

Moreover, as he was an MBA student, his English was something like the businessmen and writers out there. His use of that English made me giggle.

The violin players were playing a romantic tune and the chef along with the manager had come out of the kitchen to see my response. I knew that had come out because of the whistles I heard. But, that didn’t matter. All that mattered to me was the boy sitting in front of me on one knee with the happiest smile I had ever seen.

He knew that I loved him. He knew it all along. As much as I wanted to trouble him and make him wait for the answer, I couldn’t. It was the best day of my life and I didn’t want to waste even a moment of it.

“Yes, I will.” I had just finished the answer when he jumped up and lifted me in his arms, turning around. It was the best feeling in the world to be loved by someone you love.

It was the day, 10 months back, that I got engaged to the most handsome guy in the world!

We were sitting on the beach, facing the sunset. One of his hands was around my waist and the other held my hand while I rested my head on his shoulder. The memory of that day brought a faint smile to my face. Since that day, we never had a huge fight. All the fights, or rather arguments, were short-lived. It is rare in this world, where you can find a love like ours.

“Avni, I just got free from the meeting, how about a meet?” Karthik said through the phone as I was sitting in my, no our house watching the Television. We had recently decided to move in together and his parents didn’t object it. I had a day off from work as a reward for our hard work. This was the first, and probably last holiday we’d get.

I glanced at the clock which showed 3:40 pm, “Sure, why not?”

“Cool, get ready in 20 minutes, I’ll be there by then.” He always insisted on picking me up from wherever I was before we went out on a date.

But, me being me, always argued with him on that. This time, I didn’t want to let him win, “Don’t worry about picking me up. You don’t need to. I’ll meet you at our café in 20 minutes. Please…” The ‘please’ was a cherry on the top. He never listened to me otherwise.

He let out a small chuckle, “Alright Ms. Independent, you can come by yourself. I’ll wait there. Wear something casual and minimal make-up. I don’t want your face to get spoilt because of any reaction due to the chemicals.”

That brought a huge smile on my face because it clearly said, I won. He cared a lot about me, it showed through his statement.

As fast as possible, I put on a pair of black jeans with a white layered top, my all-time favourite. Brushing a little make-up on my face, I left the house within a record time of 15 minutes. I had to check the door twice before I left to make sure that it was locked. I had a habit of doing that.

The café was at a 10-minute distance. I decided to speed up my bike just so that I could reach there on time. Karthik was very punctual and lost his temper very easily at the people who didn’t follow time. Other than that, he was a sweetheart. He was the type of guy whom girls would dream about. But, that never made me insecure because I knew he would be with me forever.

When I started my bike, I noticed the lack of a helmet with me. Our apartment was on the fourth floor and there were no lifts in our building. The mere thought of climbing the stairs, unlocking the door, searching for the helmet, grabbing it, locking the door, and climbing four floors down made me tired. Anyway, it was a 10-minute ride. What could go wrong in such a short time?

Without bothering about the helmet any further, I raised my bike to life and pulled out of the parking lot. On the way, memories came back to life inside my head. We were supposed to get married within 2 months and the thought itself excited me.

Somewhere down the road, I may have lost a track of the road and stopped paying attention to it. Because the last thing I heard was the honking and screeching sound of a car horn and tyre before I hit something on the road and everything went black.

“What do you mean?” I could hear faint voices speaking somewhere around me, out of which I could clearly identify this as Karthik's. He went on saying something. I didn’t pay attention because I was trying to understand where I was.

“Mr. Sharma, please calm down. It’s nothing serious; your fiancé will be fine. They are just scars.”

“Are you seriously telling me that?”

I couldn’t hear the rest because I chose to block their voices out by my own thoughts. I wondered why Karthik was getting angry. He should’ve been happy that I was alive and that I’d be fine. Instead, he chose to scream at the doctors. For what, even I didn’t know.

Slowly, I tried to open my eyes to adjust to my surroundings. Memories came back to me and told me that I had met with an accident on my way to the café because I remembered hearing the honking and screeching sound of the car.

When my eyes were completely open, I saw Karthik standing at the door of the room talking to some doctor. I tried to speak and call out his name. At the first attempt, my voice came out soft while at the second, he heard me. With one last look at the doctor’s face, he turned to walk towards me.

There was no expression of happiness on his face, he looked sad. “What happened Karthik?”

“The doctor’s gone crazy.” He replied in a tone which clearly showed his anger.

“But Karthik, I’m fine. Look, nothing has happened to me. I’m perfectly fine.” I tried telling him that.

“No, you’re not.”

“I didn’t get you. What’s wrong with me? What did the doctor say?” I panicked internally, quietly hoping that nothing of it was life-threatening. I mean, I had just met with a minor accident, right?

He sighed, rubbing his temples. It was something he did when he was upset, stressed, or confused. His actions made my fear rise up a level.

“The doctor says that the scar on your face will never fade. It’s permanently going to stay.”

I let out the breath I was holding, “That’s it?”

He looked up, towards my face with surprise written all over his, “That’s it? Are you crazy?”

What was wrong if there was a scar on my face? Would that change anything? No, I didn’t think so.

“I don’t get you. Care to explain?” By that time, I was curious and irritated.

“Do you have any idea how bad that would look to my image? Avni, I’m an aspiring businessman. I need to look good and even my wife needs to. The doctor says the scar on your face won’t go. Do you realize how bad it is to my image? You don’t…” He went on talking and tears started brimming in my eyes.

After everything we’d been through, everything we’d done for each other, he was not happy that I was alive. He was upset because I had a scar.

“I don’t understand Karthik. You said you love me, how can a simple scar on my face affect our love?”

“Look Avni, love and life are two different things. My life solely depends on my career and your scar will ruin it.”

“So, you mean to say that you don’t love me now because I have a scar on my face?”

“It’s not that.” After a pause, he continued, “It’s complicated.”

I didn’t know what to think about the man who sat in front of me, the man whom I’d always loved with my heart, soul, and everything. The man who had promised to be with me in every aspect of my life, the same man was telling me that it was complicated when I asked him whether he loved me. Was this some kind of a joke?

“Then please tell me what’s so complicated in that? I want a simple answer Karthik. Do you love me or not? Is it a yes or no?” I had to be straight-forward about this. He took his own sweet time to answer.

That was when it clicked me. Every time he complimented me, it was just for my looks. It was always ‘Avni, you look beautiful’, ‘Avni, your face is cute’, ‘Avni, I love your blush, it makes you look cuter’ and the most used one, ‘Avni, use minimal make-up. I don’t want your face to get spoilt because of any reaction due to the chemicals.

That was the moment, the moment of realization when it hit me that he loved me because of my beauty. I wouldn’t brag about myself but, everyone always told me that I had pretty features and that I looked good. Was that all I was for him? Just a pretty face to look good with him in his business events and photographs? What about the time we had spent together?

My train of thoughts was brought to a stop by his next words, “Yes Avni, I love you. I really do. But, I can’t handle your scar. Maybe we should contact a plastic surgeon and ask whether he could do something, yeah?” he looked at me with a smile and started walking towards the door, probably to ask about a plastic surgeon.

Before opening the door, he turned back and said, “Oh yeah, I forgot. Thank God you’re fine.” With that, he left the room.

All I could do was stare at him, and the door after he left, dumb-founded. I had no idea, at this moment whether he loved me, or my beauty. That moment changed a lot in my life.

.    .    .