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Veronica felt nervous again. How was she supposed to describe Frank to him? What words could she use to tell Calvin that Frank Davenport was the most interesting and affectionate man she had ever met. She considered if this was the opportunity she needed to confess everything to Calvin.
“Umm…he’s okay. We get along fine,” she blurted out, before she could formulate any other words.
Calvin’s eyes seemed to expand.
“And I suppose you don’t bump into him very often anyway, do you?” he asked and Veronica spooned a mouthful of food into her mouth. She tried to bide her time before committing to a response. She couldn’t decide how to frame a response.
“I see him everyday,” she said flatly, when she was done chewing. Calvin licked his lips and nodded his head, before going back to his food. A deathly silence had descended on their table again. It was evident to Calvin that Veronica didn’t want to talk much about her work for some reason.
“How is your work coming along?” she asked, just as Calvin opened his mouth to ask something else. She wanted to distract him. He closed his mouth shut and nodded his head again.
“Good. The usual
. Nothing new,” he said and then cleared his throat.
Veronica was still trying to avoid looking at him directly. She was still trying to find more neutral ground to talk about.
“But, we’re not here to discuss my work,” he said suddenly and she jerked her head up to look at him. Calvin had his eyes narrowed at her, he was studying her face intently. Veronica gulped.
“What are we here to talk about then?” she asked, and she was sure that he could hear the loud thumping of her heart in her chest.
“You. Us. Our relationship,” he said, without wasting another moment.
Veronica put her spoon down lightly on her plate, wiped the sides of her mouth and reached for the glass of water beside her. Calvin was following all her movements with intent eyes. He was giving her a chance to respond.
“What do you want to discuss about our relationship?” she asked, in a voice that sounded more weak than confident. She was afraid that somehow Calvin knew that she had cheated on him, that she had been cheating on him for the past four weeks. She was guilty and afraid and upset with herself. Looking at Calvin’s narrowed curious eyes, which showed that he was trying to be patient with her; Veronica was sure now that she had taken him for granted. He didn’t deserve this treatment.
“When you took this job, you told me that we needed some time apart. You said that we had fallen into a routine…quite frankly, you were trying to tell me that you were bored of me,” Calvin said, still keeping his eyes on her.
Now that she was hearing those words, and after what she had done with Frank; Veronica could see how harsh it might have sounded to him. Calvin’s face was softened. He wasn’t accusing her of anything, he just seemed sad.
“I’m sorry Calvin, if I hurt you…” Veronica said, but he interrupted her again by shaking his head.
“No, you were right,” he said and her mouth nearly dropped open. Those were the last words she was expecting to hear from him.
“Don’t look so shocked, babe. I’ve given it a lot of thought and I know you were right. And I want to make up for what you felt was lacking in our relationship,” he continued.
Veronica still couldn’t say anything. She was dumbstruck by Calvin’s apologetic voice and his patient kind eyes. Then she saw him put his hand into the inside pocket of his jacket. In silence, with her eyes widened, she watched as he extracted a small blue velvet box.
In the next moment, Calvin was down on his knees beside her. He was opening the box, while Veronica’s hands flew to her mouth in shock. Calvin was proposing to her!
When Calvin opened the box, Veronica was struck instantly by the size of the diamond ring. It was sparkling in a hexagonal shape with smaller diamonds covering half of the platinum band on either side.
Some sighs and cheers had erupted around them, other people had taken note of the proposal and some had even begun clapping. Calvin remained on one knee on the floor beside her, looking up with an earnest face and enthusiastic dark eyes. Veronica was still dumbstruck, she still didn’t know what to say to him, except to remain in shock.
“Veronica Jane Lawrence, will you do me the honor of being my wife?” he said finally, in a loud confident voice. He wasn’t expecting a refusal, he didn’t appear to be able to think of a single reason why his longtime, dedicated girlfriend would refuse a proposal right now. And Veronica could say nothing to that.
Eventually, when she realized that there were too many people’s eyes on them, she slowly removed her hands that were covering her mouth.
“Please sit down, Calvin,” she said in a quiet voice that was tearing up. She was emotional, realizing that she would soon break into tears. The last thing she was expecting was for Calvin to propose to her. Not when she was toying with the idea of confessing to him that she had been cheating on him.
The smile on Calvin’s face dropped. He was expecting an immediate “yes”. He remained on the floor for a few more moments.
“Aren’t you going to let me slip it on?” he asked and Veronica licked her lips and breathed in a deep sigh.
“Let’s talk about it first, Calvin, this seems so sudden,” she said in a soft voice, hoping that the people who were staring at them wouldn’t be able to eavesdrop.
Dejectedly, Calvin straightened up and took his chair again. He dropped the open velvet box between them and stared into her eyes expectantly for an answer.
