Chapter Text
Niles watched CC Babcock intently from across the dining table in Le Opera Nocturne, and marveled how beautiful and elegant she looked in her black strapless evening gown, her blond hair up in a French twist and a matching pearl earrings and necklace adorned her. Taking her to the best French Restaurant in the area was his plan, mindless of the exorbitant price it would burn in his credit card, to set the right milieu for his proposal. She was the love of his life, and he only wanted the best on the evening he was about to pop the question once again.
He wore his best suit. The one he had saved up for the past three months in preparation for this special night. He wasn’t one to splurge on designer labels, but he did for the suit he was wearing tonight, even his pair of shoes were a designer.
He watched her enjoy her dish with champagne while his own meal remained untouched from the time the waiter had served it thirty minutes ago, her eyes glancing in his direction every now and then without a word as though uninterested to start a conversation with him. The butterflies in his stomach fluttered restlessly as he braced himself to pop the ultimate question.
“Will you marry me?” he blurted out, forgetting that his friend Fran warned him not to rush into that question as Ms. Babcock clearly was not inclined to spend her life with him anytime in the near future.
Her expression changed from docile and indifferent to one of annoyance. She rolled her eyes and flashed him a death stare.
“Stop asking me. I will not marry you. I do not like you,” she told him with great emphasis before walking out of the restaurant, leaving him gaping after her in his broken heart, tattered pride, and crushed spirit.
Coming back home to Sheffield’s place with a heavy heart, he was glad it was too late in the evening for anyone to be up. He couldn’t face anybody with his dejected spirit, and it was one of the rare instances that he could not cover up his emotions with a pretentious smile. Nothing turned out as planned. He had proposed to her four times, and each time she had turned him down, and spurned his love but still, it had not become any easier each time.
Feeling forlorn, Niles slowly walked out the veranda, looking out into the midnight sky. If only things turned out differently. Even the sky was so beautiful it was set with its million glimmering stars spread all over the sky like bright lights of Broadway as you sing and dance to a joyous finale.
But his story had not been the fairy-tale ending he had hoped for. He could watch the stars all night and wish on every one of them that CC Babcock would fall in love with him, and that he did. And as he was on the nth star, he saw a shooting star fly across the darkness like a blazing fire.
I wish Ms. Babcock would learn to love me. I wish she could see how much I love her and learn to love me with as much fervor.
Little did he know that the heavens were listening to the sighs of his sincere heart.
A white dove came out of nowhere and perched on his shoulder.
A heart of gold you possess
Riches you would be blessed
Honor and prestige I grant
And all else you want
Niles was so stunned he was not able to reply. A talking dove! How strange!
He must have gone mad after suffering one rejection after another.
“I only have one wish, and that is the love of CC Babcock,” said Niles.
“Wishes do not come easy, they come with a price. Are you sure this is what you want? Wishes can never be reversed,” said the dove.
“Yes, I want Ms. Babcock to see me for what I am and love me. I wish she would have a change of heart”