True love, according to Ricardo Montalban, doesn't happen right away; it's an ever-growing process that develops after one has gone through many ups and downs.

Often, it starts with friendship, then, you begin to go on dates, get to know each other then, proposal, then it graduates to courtship, marriage, etc.

One of the delicate stages of the relationship is the proposal stage. This is because of the fact that things can turn sour if the partner (which often is the lady) decides to reject the proposal. But you hit a jackpot when the response is a 'yes.'

Therefore, there are special ways or things that one can do to spice up the relationship and influence the partner to a "straight yes."

Well, on Valentine's day edition of the Super Morning Show, Sports Journalist with the Multimedia Group, Gary Al-Smith, shared an intriguing story of how a phone call on his spouse's birthday worked the magic and changed the status of their friendship to a serious relationship which eventually became marriage.

Narrating how it all started, he said he had been in a relationship with the lady for a while.

"We had a sort of long-distance relationship although it was just Accra-Takoradi and I made a habit of getting to Takoradi like from here (Kokomlemle) to Tema Station.

"So anytime she said she needed me, I just appeared and you know, I'll regularly show up unannounced I'd go with these little little trinkets.

But the turning point was during the 2012 AFCON.

"I think for the 2012 AFCON, I was in Gabon (to cover the event), and at the time, she didn't even know I knew her number or anything, and I called her on her birthday from Gabon." The lady was obviously taken aback by the surprise and this, according to Gary, could be one of the factors that did the magic and influenced his partner to accept his proposal.