Marry Me, Stranger

Hello Stranger.

Gab stared at the clock above the counter of the bar she did not really frequent like her life depended on it. It was a bit too classy for an ordinary office worker like her. She just thought she could splurge a little on this momentous occasion. In a little less than five minutes, she'll turn twenty-nine. Twenty-freakin'-nine. Yay.

"Ooh shit," she mused as she felt a sudden dizziness. The alcohol's getting to her. But she couldn't stop drinking to "drown her sorrows away!". She smiled wryly inspite of herself.

Just then, a figure sat next to her and said to the bartender, "A whiskey mac please."

She didn't pay any attention to the man until the bartender put his order in front of them just as the clock strikes twelve.

She didn't know what came over her, maybe just on a whim, she faced the stranger and clunk her glass of margarita with his. "To my twenty-nine years of single-blessedness!"

The man stared at her, bewildered. Shocked, even. She grinned at him before gulping down her margarita in one go. She looked at the bartender and ordered another one. The young man immediately replaced her glass with a new one. If she shocked him, she didn't give a damn.

She realized the stranger was still staring at her direction so she turned back to him. "What? First time seeing a twenty-nine year-old virgin?"

He started to shake his head, "No, that's not what - err.. well, yeah." He seemed to gain his composure after that and said. "You're twenty-nine," he said like he was confirming that fact.

She chuckled, "That's what got your attention?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "You could pass for a teenager."

"Yeah, I get that a lot. Sometimes I even have to present my driver's license to get a drink especially when I'm not dressed up for work." She took a sip and let the drink burn its way down her throat. "I even get boys ten year younger than I am approach me, can you believe it?" She cupped her chin up the counter. She sighed aloud, "I'd give anything for a boyfriend right now.. No, a husband would actually be better."

The stranger snickered, "In my world, a spouse can be a total stranger, you know. A marriage of convenience. After all, it's just a contract easily terminated when it suits both parties." He drank his whiskey like it was nothing.

"Yeah, I agree with you, mister," Gab said passionately, she even leaned closer to him and nodded vigorously. "I've been chasing after love all my life and look where it got me. A marriage does not need love to work, there are other things too like -"

"Money," he helpfully supplied.

"Respect," she interjected.

"Power."

"Trust." Her brows furrowed.

"Sex."

"Companionship!" she countered incredulously.

He laughed and took another shot of whiskey. "Saying you agree with me but you actually still believe in love, don't you?"

"Of course," she answered without a hint of hesitation. "It's just not for everyone. True love, that is."

"So you're saying that you don't deserve true love?"

"No, I'm saying I might not be meant for falling in love." She saw the knot on his forehead so she continued, "You know, those types who'll be ruined with love or those incapable of love. Along those lines."

"What kind of theory is that?"

"Hey, it's my theory. Make your own."

"Oh, I have mine. Love is bullshit. Just a figment of a delusional mind's imagination. A make-believe."