AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Keith,” Evie sighed. “I want to make myself perfectly clear with no room for miscommunication. So, please listen to me without interrupting.”
“Okay,” Keith said, continuing to smile.
“I don’t know how our dating went from a relationship I thought was built on mutual respect to an engagement being completely one-sided… but somehow it turned. I don’t know how your mom can truly be happy in a relationship where she bends to the will of your father at every move, but I want you to know… that will never make me happy. I want a relationship where both of our desires are heard and where we are both happy. I know that can happen because that’s the kind of relationship my parents have.”
“But your mom and biological dad were divorced.”
“True, but my mom and adopted dad are happily married and that’s what I want. I don’t want to be married to someone who won't take equal partnership in raising kids. I don’t want a relationship where my husband thinks my one and only place is in the home. You knew that I love the country and love animals and yet you believed that I would change that desire for you.”
“That’s what people in love do,” Keith replied.
“You’re right, but neither of us is willing to change. You’re not willing to bend for me, and I’m not willing to bend for you.”
“Are you saying I don’t love you?”
Evie paused as she absentmindedly played with the ring on her finger. She looked at Keith and then nodded. “Neither of us is in love, Keith.”
Evie looked at the ring she had been playing with and gently slid it off her finger. She reached for Keith’s hand and placed the ring in the palm of his hand.
“I know you’ll find someone who will fall in love with you and with your great-grandmother’s ring.”
“Wait!” Keith yelped. “You don’t love me?”
“You’re a good guy, it’s just that you are not meant for me and I’m not meant for you.”
“What about my parents? What do I say to them? What do I say to our friends? Everyone on Facebook knows we're engaged.”
“I’ll go out of town this weekend and then we can change our status on Facebook. That way a week will pass before we have to face everyone at church.”
“But shouldn’t you be crying?” Keith asked.
Evie laughed quietly. She never was a crier. She left that business to her sister, Saylor. “No, Keith. I don’t usually cry, but the lack of tears is also a sign that neither of us is in love.”
“I’m going to miss you, Evie.”
“I think you’re going to miss the idea of us, but I promise… once you find someone you truly love, things will be different. Bye, Keith.”
Evie squeezed his arm gently with one hand while the other held on to the box of cannoli and then quickly got out of his car and walked to her apartment.
She opened the door, saw her roommate Amanda sitting on the couch watching one of her reality shows and plopped down beside her. Evie opened her box of cannoli, took one, and offered the other to Amanda.
Evie looked at the TV screen, but her mind was somewhere else. She visualized the list she made of the requirements she wanted in her future husband and then mentally wrinkled it up and threw it in the garbage. Shocked at her own wastefulness of her list-making abilities, she mentally took it out of the garbage and unwrinkled it.
She absentmindedly put her hand in her back pocket and felt the list from Keith and his dad and told herself she’d look over that list another time.
Evie sighed loudly and then offered a quiet prayer heavenward. She prayed that she would be led to someone who would love her as her dad loved her mom and who also loved the Lord and the gospel the same way she did.
Chapter 2
Matt knew he was dreaming but didn’t want to wake up. He had been following a beautiful young woman across the sandy coast of a Southern California beach trying to get her attention. Her long light, chestnut brown hair waved from side to side as the breeze from the coast tossed her hair in a non-rhythmic pattern.
Matt got close enough to touch her, so he reached out to do so. But before he could touch her, the young woman turned around abruptly, causing her hair to whip around and brush against his face. The hair caused him to quickly close his eyes.
He shook his head and opened his eyes, then rapidly closed them again, mentally cursing the unfinished dream. He was now awake and the light around him announced it was morning and not night. Matt instantly sat up and forcefully rubbed his eyes and looked over to where his alarm clock sat on the end table. It was there, but the screen was black.
Was there a power outage?
He reached over to grab the alarm clock but something beside him got in his way… and that something groaned and moved.
