Friday, February 1, 2008

Chapter One...

Chapter One

          In the center of a crowded upscale restaurant, Ali hesitated.

“No,” she finally answered in a soft tone, “I can’t.” She stared at the round brilliant diamond ring inside the box he held; trying to deflect any eye contact - trying to avert reading the confusion in Jonathan’s eyes.

Still feeling the touch of her hand, Jonathan looked up at her with a dozen questions in mind, but knew her answers would be vague.

An uncomfortable silence filled the entire room - still down on one knee; his face became red as his eyes darted to several glares from a nearby table. He was aware of the attention that was on the scene and what happened next.

Hazy from Ali’s response to his proposal, his head turned back in the direction of his girlfriend of almost a year. He couldn’t comprehend or assess her facial expression. Jonathan whispered his first of many questions, “No?” trying not to draw any more curiosity.

“No” had been hard for her to say, even harder for him to hear – her tone, her voice, her “no”.

She let go of his hand and leaned back in her chair. Jonathan staggered back into his seat; his hand shook as he tried carefully to place the box in his coat pocket.

All eyes were locked on the scene. Half on him. Half on her. Embarrassed for both.

Ali remained silent. She chose to be silent over saying something she’d later regret.

Jonathan scanned the room until everyone had finally decided to go about their business; although he still heard whispering. I can’t believe she said “no”, - echoed in his mind after an elderly woman nearby commented the same.


His broken heart kept him from looking into her eyes; he didn’t know what to say or what to do. Jonathan wasn’t even sure if his throat would allow him to complete a word.

1 comment:

^RoOhAnI^ said...

Excellently written.. good work