Page 9 of Liberating Bells
“What is it?” I ask, my voice hesitant.
“You know, I got to thinking yesterday.” I bite my tongue, not liking where this is going already. “We’ve been together such a long time.”
Blinking at him, I nod, still waiting for him to get to his point.
Mark stares at me for a moment, a wide, disconcerting smile apparent on his lips. He finally reaches into the pocket of his sweats and pulls something out, palming it right onto the table. When he removes his hand and reveals what he was hiding, everything comes to a screeching halt.
A giant diamond ring stares up at me and sends my mind rushing into a tailspin.
I can hear my heartbeat echo in my ears and my vision jars just slightly as my brain tries to catch up with what my eyes are seeing.
I realize I’m silent for a bit too long when Mark’s voice rattles me out of my stupor.
“Well?” Mark asks, pulling me out of my whirlwind thoughts.
“What?” I ask weakly.
He gives me a sharp look that instantly has me feeling foolish. “Are you going to give me an answer?” His eyes fall to the enormous diamond ring sitting on the table, as if to give me a not-so-subtle hint as to what he’s talking about.
“Oh, um—” I stare at the diamond now too, watching as it glints from the overhead lighting.
“Come on, Izabel,” Mark groans. His voice is impatient now. “This is the next obvious step for us. It’s not like this hasn’t been coming. It’s not spur of the moment, out of the blue.”
Well, it kind of is, I want to say, but I don’t, knowing that would only set him off.
“The fact that you look even remotely undecided right now is like a knife to the heart, baby,” Mark pleads. He hits me with wide eyes, and my heart softens a bit for him. “Please, just say yes. I know you love me just as much as I love you. This is the next step for us.”
I take a deep breath, feeling conflicted. The timing of this whole thing has me on edge. But he’s right. We’ve been together for years; this was going to come at some point. I look down at the ring and slowly nod my head. “Okay. Yes.”
Mark jolts out of his chair with awhoop. The sudden action has me flinching and backing away. He doesn’t seem to notice my unease because he wraps me in his arms and pulls me up until I’m standing right against him. He hugs me so tightly that my feet leave the floor.
“See! I knew you’d say yes.” He sets me down and cups my face in his large hands, tilting my face up to his and pressing a firm kiss on my lips.
When he lets me go, his face is beaming. It’s a sight that has me smiling back and finally getting excited about the prospect ofsaying yes. Mark reaches for the diamond ring still sitting on the table, and then takes my left hand before sliding it onto my ring finger.
He whistles, grinning boyishly at me. “Yeah, I knew that rock would look good on your hand. You deserve some bling like that to make sure everyone knows who you belong to.”
I smile tightly, looking down at the ring on my finger. Something about his sentence rubs me the wrong way, but I bite my tongue, not sure how to verbalize it.
Mark gives my hand one long, lingering look before he gives a satisfied nod. “Well, I’m sorry to bail on such a momentous occasion. I didn’t think you were going to sleep in that late, and I have a ten-thirty tee time with my dad.” He looks at his watch for emphasis before leaning in and kissing me on the cheek. “Maybe we can get dinner tonight and celebrate, though.”
What little strand of excitement I felt quickly deflates when I realize he’s leaving. To go golfing. Not even spending five minutes with me after asking me to marry him.
So romantic.
I know that asking him to stay would be useless. When he makes his mind up to do something, all bets are off. So I give him another wane smile and nod. “Sure, dinner sounds great.”
He kisses me again, his grin still set in place. “You pick, whatever you want.”
“Okay,” I murmur.
Within the next fifteen minutes, Mark is gone.
More recently, Mark has prodded me with questions asking how I wanted to be proposed to. If I wanted something lavish or simple, extravagant or to the point. And each time he brought it up, I got so flustered that I could barely give him a straight response.
So really, I suppose this lackluster engagement is because I couldn’t make up my mind.
But even then, I can’t help but be a little disappointed that he apparently put little to no effort into the ordeal.
