Love Galore (Chaennie)

Chapter 16

Chapter 16

In the movies, there's always a long stretch of hallway for the death row inmate to march down towards her doom, and everything is quiet except for the inmate's thudding footsteps and thundering heartbeat. Rosie thinks of that now as she follows Mark down the hall. Except, instead of prison guards, she's surrounded by taxidermies moose and bison.

They exit the Hall of North American Mammals and into the main hallway, where it's still relatively quiet, with only a few people passing through. Rosie expects Mark to stop so they could talk, but he keeps going, and she feels compelled to follow. He takes her back to Cullman Hall where they had dinner. Dinner hour is winding down, but there are still plenty of people milling about. Rosie doesn't get it. It's the strangest place to pick for an intense heart-to-heart conversation about their relationship.

Mark stops at the meteorite display near the center of the room and waits for Rosie to join him.

When she does, before she can say anything, he drops down to one knee.

Then her heart drops too.

"What are you doing?" she whispers furiously at him.

"What I should've done a long time ago." This can't be happening. It can't be. But he's holding a small red jewelry box in his hands and everyone is looking at them. "Roseanne Park-"

Her eyes go wide. "Ohhhhhh no no no no no."

"-You are the love of my life. You are the reason my heart beats-"

"Mark, no," Rosie says in a hushed, panicked voice. "Please, get up."

He freezes, uncertainty and confusion all over his face. "What's that?"

A little louder, trying to ignore the stares from everyone in the room, she hisses, "Get! Up!"

He climbs to his feet, still looking confused as he pockets the ring box. Rosie turns and rushes - no, flees - up the stairs, making a beeline for the nearest exit.

She bursts out into the cold December night, uncaring of how the chill feels against her jacketless body. Mark follows close behind her.

Spinning around to face him, she shrieks, "Are you out of your frickin' mind?!"

With his jaw hanging loose in surprise, Mark asks with genuine bewilderment, "What?"

"What? What?!" Even to Rosie's own ears, her voice sounds shrill. "You just caught me with my hand down another woman's pants! And your response is to propose?! What the hell, Mark?!"

"Well, that wasn't the impetus," Mark responds, making himself sound very reasonable about it. "I was already planning on doing it tonight. It's perfect. You love museums and space stuff."

"Then what you just saw back there should've made you change your mind!" Rosie shakes her head, feeling weary and exhausted. "Mark, this isn't working. We- we have to break up."

Mark furrows his eyebrows quizzically. "What? What do you mean? Why?"

"What do you mean 'what do you mean'?!" Rosie's starting to feel like she's losing her mind. "I just cheated on you!"

Breezily, Mark responds, "You didn't cheat on me."

Now Rosie's wondering if Mark is the one who's lost his mind. "Uh. Yes, I did."

"No, you didn't."

"You literally caught me on top of Jennie ten minutes ago!"

"Yeah, but I said you could. Remember? I gave you a hall pass for her ages ago. So." He shrugs lazily. "It doesn't count if it's Jennie. We're all good."