18 Years of Bonnie & Clyde

[1] Champagne Problems

Present, Year 18...

"No." Alice said plainly. She had expected her heart to pound with excitement, but there was nothing. More so, a relief when she heard her own response leave her mouth.

Her eyes were glued to the man in front of her, who had just got down on one knee. A shining bright diamond was looking back at her and she could swear it was whispering if she had gone insane.

"Alice..." Hal's eyes were still hopeful, as he figured that she was reacting in shock. He really thought she just couldn't believe that he was asking her to marry him.

"No." She repeated once more, firmer this time.

And though she had assumed there would be a tiny part of her that had doubts about turning down a proposal from someone she had dated for four years, it wasn't there.

"Wait, seriously? Your answer is no?" Hal finally rose from the ground, his eyebrows knitted in a confused frown. He had been so confident that she would say yes, but maybe the insecurities he always had about their relationship were true after all.

"Yes. I mean No. I mean yes, my answer is no." Alice rambled confused and shook her head as she said so.

The last thing she had expected was to turn down a proposal right before her son's eighteenth birthday, but maybe it was the wake-up call she had needed for the longest time.

"Is this because of..." Hal couldn't even finish his sentence, instead averted his gaze away from her. He asked a question, but he knew the answer already.

"Because of what?" She asked, even though she knew what the end of that sentence was, she had know it for eighteen years.

"Don't act naive, Alice." He scoffed, and angrily closed the little box with the expensive ring in it.

"You're saying no because you're waiting for someone else to ask you, right?" Hal tried to soften his face, but the vein pounding dangerously on his forehead betrayed how furious he was.

Alice looked away. She couldn't answer his question, not because she thought he didn't deserve the truth, but because for the first time she actually realized that maybe he was right.

"I really hoped I was wrong." He shook his head, and placed the jewelry box on the dinner table. However, Alice wasn't even sure that her refusing his proposal had anything to do with anything besides their own relationship.

"Maybe I just don't want to get married, Hal." Alice shrugged, as she herself was growing annoyed with him.

Every single time, he managed to turn the conversation around about the father of her son, when he had nothing to do with their relationship. Or so, she kept on telling herself.

"In a way, this was the ultimate test." He turned back to her, his eyes surprisingly calm.

She may have stepped on his heart, part of him could find peace in finally knowing the real answer, one he had been asking himself ever since they had started dating four years ago.

"You tested me?" Alice spat out, crossing her arms angrily.

She thought they had a relationship based on trust, but if he really did only propose to make a point then she wasn't sure she even knew him anymore.

"If you'd say yes, I'd know for sure you really wanted to be with me. But it's him. It's always been him." Hal shook his head, and for a second she saw hurt flashing through his eyes that broke her own heart. However, she wasn't focused on giving him any comfort, she had something bigger to deny, a lie she had mastered over the course of her life that she couldn't suddenly drop.