Rosie

Chapter 2

Two Weeks Later. 7 weeks

Amelia had been acting weird as of late. At first he thought it had something to do with his last therapy session, then he figured maybe she had caught on to him wanting to propose and didn't want that. Now, he wasn't entirely sure. She just seemed suddenly uninterested in him. It was like her mind was somewhere else entirely.

"What are you eating?" he asked her late one night, when she'd come home from a graveyard shift.

"There's nothing else to eat," she stated casually. Owen watched as she placed a slice of cheese onto the apple, and ate it in one bite.

"Does that taste good to you?" he sought to confirm. Amelia looked at the second Apple slice in her hand, then at the block of cheese on the table.

She pointed at the table with the apple slice. "There's pickles and crackers, too."

"Listen, I don't know what's been going on lately," he said, dismissing her odd snack choice, "But I've been feeling like you've been acting weird and I wanted to make sure everything was okay."

With another apple slice and piece of cheese already halfway in her mouth, she muffled, "I'm fine, Owen."

"Are you sure you're okay?" he asked once more.

"I'm okay," she brushed him off, "I'm just hungry, and there's nothing to eat." He frowned but tried his best to hide it, settling for her off topic response. He wasn't asking about her snack, and he knew she knew that.

"Are we still going to the wedding together tomorrow?" he chose to ask instead, allowing the orchestrated miscommunication.

"Why wouldn't we be?"

Owen shrugged, trying to subtly stick in again, "I don't know, you've been kind of distant lately. Is there anything you want to talk about?"

Amelia froze, but then she decided. "No, there isn't anything..."

He sighed and frowned, running a hand through his hair as he surrendered. "Okay, Amelia..." Before he left her in the kitchen, he added, "You know, you can tell me anything, right?" Now she felt even worse. She almost found herself saying the words to him, but they wouldn't form. She hadn't decided what she was going to do as yet, and she couldn't handle his opinions on it, if he had any at all.

"I know," she answered, "I'll see you upstairs." Giving up, he retired upstairs, leaving her alone to her thoughts.

He'd bought the ring a week ago, he just had to figure out how he was going to propose. He thought about doing it at the wedding, but he didn't want to take away the spotlight from Jo and Alex, and he didn't want a crowd if she had plans to tell him no. That would crush him. Maybe he would wait, that seemed like the better option. He wasn't sure if now was the right time to propose, considering the way she'd been acting the past couple weeks. He felt like they were about to go through another rough patch, maybe even break up for real this time. Maybe she changed her mind about wanting to work it out, he didn't know. He just felt bad.

———

"Have you told Owen as yet?" Amelia turned around to see Maggie behind her, already pulling a chair to sit next to her at the table. Alex and Jo had just tied the knot, and now they were at the reception, trying to seat themselves for the toast.

"No, I haven't," Amelia confessed, resting a hand on her forehead as she leaned on the table.

"What are you waiting for?!" Maggie all but screamed at her. "He deserves to know! Plus I don't know how much longer I can keep this a secret!"

Suddenly, it was almost like Amelia had blown a fuse. "What am I supposed to tell him?!" she exclaimed, "Maggie we barely scratched ourselves back from the PTSD thing. What if something else happens and we break up for real? I can't raise another baby by myself, I can't-,"