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Kias and I are led to a table, three spots away from the last time I was here. The waitress hands us menus, takes our drink orders, and leaves us alone.
I stare at the water flowing past us in a trance. I can’t seem to look away, sucked into the water like I’m in a whirlpool.
“Are you okay?” Kias tilts his head, gauging my reaction closely.
“Yeah, just thinking about my mom.”
“What about her?”
“I just miss her. We used to come here once a month, just the two of us. It was our little ‘mother-daughter’ date,” I tell him, lost within a memory.
“Where is she?”
“She killed herself. My dad doesn’t even talk about her anymore.”
“That’s strange,” his nose crinkles in thought.
“Not really. I don’t expect him to grieve the rest of his life.”
“Do you think you will ever get married, Zolina?” He suddenly asks in between sipping from his Long Island iced tea.
His random question forces me from my thoughts immediately. Surprise fills me, showing clearly on my face. “Um, yeah, I guess. Maybe, one day. Why do you ask?”
“I’d like to think that you and I have been born for each other. Maybe we will end up married. I know so much about you, even though it’s only been a few weeks.”
“It may have only been a few weeks, and I don’t think we should rush into anything,” I shrug. “We have our whole lives ahead of us, but to answer the question you didn’t ask, yes. I think I’d marry you, eventually.”
JD, of course, trailed behind us and now sits a table away. She makes eye contact with me and I notice her eyes bulging from her head. The face she makes shouts ‘What the fuck?’, but I turn my attention back to the smiling man in front of me.
“You would? When?” He is giddy and practically jumping for joy in his seat. I roll my eyes and smile. He may be only two years older than me, but he sometimes acts like a cute little child.
“I don’t know. I guess you’re right, though. We generally know everything about each other. Plus, we both know what our home life is like. Why? Do you want to?”
“I– Uh– Will-,” he slides out of his chair and gets down on one knee. He pulls a jewelry box out of his pants pocket and looks at me. My hands fly to my mouth in shock. This is happening too fast, but something feels… almost right. “Zolina Connors, will you marry me?”
JD stands up and glares at me from behind Kias. She uses her hands to pretend to drag a fake knife across her neck. I don’t know what her problem is. It isn’t like Kias and I haven’t seen each other every day. We have been going out to lunch and dinner almost every afternoon. She’s just overreacting, probably because she’s been put on the back burner for the last few weeks.
My hands are frozen, and I can’t speak. This is real. This is happening. Right now. What will Daddy think? You know what, who cares? I can use Kias to distract me and maybe one day I’ll fall in love with him. I’m almost twenty-one, it’s the perfect time to start a family. I nod twice and blink a million times as tears slowly fall down my cheeks.
Kias pulls my left hand away from my face and slides the giant princess-cut diamond, set in a white gold band, onto my ring finger.
“Oh, Pookie. We will make amazing partners,” Kias tells me with a huge grin.
JD throws up her hands in exasperation and stomps away, walking out of the restaurant. She is most likely pissed at me for jumping into this too fast. I don’t care. This is exactly the type of distraction I need. It feels as normal as the leaves that fall off the trees in autumn.
I just hope that I am making the correct decision.
Chapter 8
Atlis
That stupid, foolish, dumb-fuck of a fucking brother.
How fucking dare he pull this shit. I will fucking gut him from stem to stern. Kias knows… He fucking knows that I’m the one who is supposed to marry Zolina. He thinks he can trick her into falling in love with him, trick her into a marriage so she can’t legally get married to me. He obviously hasn’t paid attention in the last two decades that I– I am the fucking one who will marry her.
I am the one who she is promised to.
I can't wait for the day that I can carve him into little pieces, letting him endure the things he gags about. I want to make him watch while I pry each finger off slowly, letting them fall to the floor. Kias will watch as I torture him, and cry to me about the pain that he is in.
