Riya Banerjee was a self sufficient, independent woman. She had finally reached a stage in life where she felt that she was on the correct path of achieving all that she had dreamt of as a little girl. Riya Banerjee did not have time for silly things like love and friendship. She had more important things to worry about in life – her little brother’s education, her mom’s dream house , her dad’s deteriorating health. All her life had been spent in securing a future for her and her family, and everything else had taken a backseat.

Rita’s success story was the one similar to those that is found in magazines nowadays about the independent women entrepreneurs of the 21st century. Starting out from scratch, Riya had surpassed all her colleagues in terms of success and at the young age of 27, was now the Managing Director of one of the top multinational companies. She didn’t need a man to pay her bills, or pamper her. She could do that herself. In fact, the thought of a relationship made her think about all the negative impacts it could have on her career, and it all seemed like too much of a nuisance to her. On top of that, because of a lack of social life, she had a deep sense of insecurity embedded somewhere which just kept on growing within her.

However, life had been too kind to her for her to be bitter. She was satisfied with where she was and didn’t wish for anything to change. Occasionally, there were some nights when she experienced casual bouts of loneliness but she got through those somehow. Tonight was one of those nights.

Riya got into her night clothes and switched on her iPod. Getting into bed, she switched on her night light. This was her favourite time of the day. The time which was all hers, which she didn’t have to share with anyone, and when she didn’t have to pretend to be someone else. Listening to her favorite tracks, she closed her eyes. Suddenly, she heard some noise coming from the balcony.

She looked up to see a tall lean figure looking like a well built man entering into her room from the balcony. It was dark, but the moonlight fell on some parts of his face, highlighting some of it’s features. Short hair, clipped nose and a hint of a mischievous smile on his face, he was slowly coming towards her.

As he approached nearer in the light of her night lamp, she could see his golden brown eyes. There was a kind of sincerity and longing in those eyes that she just could not bring herself to look away. For Riya, time stopped at that very moment, and her mind could not think properly, or gauge what was happening around her. While looking at his eyes, it seemed to Riya that she could see though his soul. Suddenly, the stranger did not seem like a stranger anymore to her. She felt that she knew him since ages. There was a certain bond connecting him to her.

He was wearing a white tuxedo with brown shoes. With a rose in his hand, he bent down on one knee, all this while never breaking eye contact with Riya even once. Down on one knee, he started singing Westlife’s “I wanna grow old with you,” her all time favorite song. She heard the background music to the song with vocals and the entire chorus which kept on getting louder and louder until she woke up with a start. She looked around and the mysterious stranger was gone. When the realization hit her, Riya kept her iPod aside and went back to sleep with the thoughts of her handsome mystery man and a faint little smile on her lips.

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