Hollyday

He asked her to clear an entire day. He said he would need her from morning till night. He was dedicating a day to her.

It was June. It was warm but not yet hot. She was awakened by him at an earlier hour than she was used to. There was some cheesy earth music playing in the background. She turned over on her back and slid up from her blankets so that her breasts were revealed bra-less in a grey, spaghetti strap tank top. He wasn 't in bed with her nor was he even in the bedroom. On the night stand sat an 8x10 frame. In the frame was a purple paper that declared....The First Ever Day of Holly Hammond! She giggled with surprise and mischief. On the same night stand sat a cup of steaming hot Peppermint Tea with two tea bags the way she liked it. She was just about to test the temperature of her tea when he threw open the door with his foot. In one hand was a small plate of homemade apple pancakes drizzled with syrup. In the other hand a dish of fruit and massage oil.

He proceeded to awaken her body with a light 10 minute massage and then feed her small bites of the apple pancakes dripping with syrup that he kissed off of her lips and cheeks. While the morning decadence had only just begun, he explained how the remainder of the day would work. He would be sending her through the city on a kind of self-pampering scavenger hunt. He had detailed the day out for her and had separate envelopes for her to open after each stop she made through the city. Each envelope would contain details of the next step in the scavenger hunt along side a poem, letter, thought regarding their six months together. The theme for the day would be Body, Mind, Spirit. She was overwhelmed, overjoyed, and couldn't control her giggling. It was the giggles of embarrassment, like she had been plucked from the audience and unwillingly thrown onstage by a cabaret performer and the spotlight was on her.

After a shared bubble bath, some fruit feeding, and a subway ride downtown, they stopped off at the cafe where they had their first date. They shared a cappuccino and shared words about love. He stood up from the table almost abruptly and handed her a large manila envelope that contained all the smaller step by step envelopes of the day and a cassette tape and walkman. He instructed her to enjoy herself and to listen to the tape when instructed by the different steps of the hunt. He kissed her on her forehead and bolted out the door with excitement. She was disappointed to discover he was not going to be with her throughout the day's scavengering. She immediately tore into the manila envelope. She found 6, maybe 7, smaller envelopes with detailed pictures drawn on to them. She opened the first one, read the letter, which professed his love for her and the excitement for a full day of Body, Mind, and Spirit ahead. At the end of the letter his instructions were to put on the walkman and listen to the first two songs of the soundtrack he made for the day while on her way to stop #1.

She left the cafe with her headphones on, feeling sexy and, for lack of a better word, special. If you'd have seen her walking down the street you could tell this was a girl in love. She stepped with confidence and grace down the subway steps already thinking of ways to repay her lover's day of dedication.

Her day consisted of a spa treatment, a pre-paid shopping spree for clothes to be worn later that night, a visit to the bookstore, and a detailed treasure-like map leading her through central park midday, only to discover him on a secluded section of green grass under a shade tree. He had an entire picnic prepared. She pulled off her earphones and ran to him. She threw herself on to him knocking him to his back on the grass where she proceeded to tickle, kiss and swat at him for going way overboard on this dedicated day. They ate together, talking about all the planning that had gone into this day and how he did it all. She couldn't believe there was still more to come. She repeated the phrase 'thank you' over and over. Her emotions were spilling over. She wanted to cry. She wanted to laugh. She wanted to run.

They finished up their sandwiches and veggies after more than an hour of laughing, kissing, and holding. He needed to return home to prepare the dinner she would come home to after making her last stop at the paperie to purchase that gorgeous diary she spotted weeks ago. Before they parted, he insisted that they take this certain path of sidewalk in the park. She didn't understand his insistence, since it seemed to be in the wrong direction of the paperie store or the subway he needed. They were just walking and talking and she was fixed on his profile. His full lower lip, his long eyelashes, the few freckles on his nose, his height, his gait, the hair on his forehead reminding her he needed a trim. She was so transfixed by her beautiful beau, that she almost missed the biggest part of an already larger than life day. There, on the sidewalk they strolled upon, etched in multi-colored sidewalk chalk that was nearly six feet long, were the words
I
LOVE
HOLLY!

It took her a few moments to realize what it said. When she did finally realize, she turned to him with her mouth gaping open and the damn breaking in her eyes. She jumped into his arms wrapping her legs around his waist twisting at the ankles to lock her position. She didn't want to leave this moment. They spun around like they were in the closing scene of a movie. Like they were Richard Gere and Debra Winger. She was in an unexplainable food, love, lust, life coma. She was speechless and laughing. She was jumping and crying. She caressed his face and looked him in the eye. She kissed him nearly two dozen fast quick kisses all over his face. She wanted to kiss him 100 times. Maybe even 1000 times. Maybe those 1000 kisses would show him how grateful she was to have him in her life. Maybe those 1000 sweet kisses would leave lipstick marks all over his body that he would never wash off as a constant reminder of how much she loved him back.

The final envelope.

Her instructions were to take the long way home. Dinner was waiting and then a night of theatre, drinking, and dancing to follow. She was instructed to listen to the remainder of the soundtrack on the long ride home and journal her thoughts about the day in her lovely, new, crushed red velvet covered diary. He wanted her to be able to remember this day and this moment in her life for years to come.

She wasn't sure how to put it all down on paper. She wanted to capture her emotions and feelings. But, she also wanted to detail the events so not to forget where the cafe was or the name of the spa that fed her grapes out of an ivory chalice. She wanted to write down all the songs from the soundtrack of her day in case one day she couldn't play the tape because it would be eaten by the aging boom box she used. She listened to the Indigo Girls....

"I could go crazy on a night like tonight.

summer's beginning to give up her fight.

why do you spend this time with me?

may be an equal mystery."

She wrote something close to this...

--I will be loved tonight. Love is rare and life is strange. Tonight. Tonight, I will be loved. I will have a soul entangled in mine. For tonight. Remember me. Remember this. Today, life was beautiful.--