"… I love you and I will stop at nothing to get you to agree to be mine and mine only...", Amanda smiled in a sad way when the words that Kelvin spoke earlier kept resounding in her head. She leaned against the door of her apartment and sighed.
"Where did it all go wrong?", she asked herself for the thousandth time.
"These words, … how good it would have been if it were coming from Eddy," she mumbled to herself.
When Amanda entered her hall in the apartment, Tasha was waiting with a bottle of champagne.
"Pop!" she popped off the cork just as Amanda put down her keys and purse to take off her shoes.
"Congratulations!!, my girl on your first boyfriend!" she screamed in welcome but the look on Amanda's face told her everything without her hearing anything.
"Oh, I am sorry dear, come here." Tasha opened her arms wide and enveloped her friend who was now in inconsolable tears. "We will not be needing this champagne, after all, I think that vodka we've been saving should be perfect for this situation!" Tasha stated and left for the vodka as Amanda tried to laugh through her tears.
Tasha also grabbed a towel with some warm water as she noticed that Amanda had blistered her feet. She sat on the floor and massaged Amanda's feet with the towel while Amanda narrated the day's events to her.
As she listened, she got very angry but in the back of her mind, she was happy that at least Amanda would now have some closure and look for someone 'better' because she had never liked Eddy and only tolerated him because of her friend.
"You deserve better my friend. Everything happens for a reason!"
"But… Did you bring back one man after losing the other? GIRL! YOU ROCK! That's the spirit!" Amanda shook her head when she heard this as she knew that nothing would say will get into Tasha's head.
*** *** ***
Back at the parking lot in the cinema, Eddy and Ella lay spent in each other's arms. Ella's mouth looked swollen from all the kissing and Eddy looked frustrated because she had only let him kiss and grope her and nothing else.
"We are not teenagers on a prom night", he thought to himself.
She inhaled his cologne and asked, "Did you change it? I like this one better".
"Yea," he replied curtly.
"Is something wrong?" she asked him innocently, but she clearly knew what he was frustrated about.
"Nothing is wrong, sweetheart," he said and forced a smile on his face to mask the frustration so that she could relax.
Ella suddenly started shooting one question after another at him, "Why did you decide to marry me? What do you love about me? Wh-",
"Whoa hehehe, can you slow down a bit? Let's take one question after the other, okay?", Eddy interrupted her.
He smiled and continued, "but I can get the general gist of your line of questions. There are many reasons that I cannot explain now, bu-",
"Wait, what?!", Ella shouted and interjected, and she struggled to get up from the position she was in. She had laid directly in his arms with her back on his chest so she did not see the complex emotions that had passed on his face when he had said this but he held her down in the same position and continued quietly, "Let me finish first, darling".
"As I was saying, the reasons are many, but they are unimportant. The most prominent and what I consider important is that I love you so much that I …uh- ", he grunted as if he was in pain, "I- uh, don't know what I will do without you in my life Ella".
Upon hearing this, Ella beamed in happiness as she felt him place a chaste kiss on top of her head and she visibly relaxed.
"I have to call daddy with the news.", she stated excitedly and almost suddenly she dialled the number right away.
*** *** ***
Mitch sat on his patio nursing a glass of wine just as the call came in. He looked at the caller ID and smiled. It's Ella, he told Wallace who had come in purposely for some important discussion. Wallace nodded and Mitch picked up the call. As if he already knew the contents of the upcoming conversation with his daughter, he put the phone on the loudspeaker so that his friend could join the conversation.
"Daaadddyyyy!"
"Yes, my baby," he answered with a smile.
"EDDY PROPOSED TO ME!",
"I guess, I don't need to ask if you are happy right? Judging from your voice, you are over the moon. Do you like him that much?", Mitch asked his daughter in a slightly teasing manner while he gave Wallace a thumbs up.
"Mm-hmm, I do."
"Well, I am glad that you are happy my dear. Can you pass the phone to Eddy?"
Ella did just that and watched as Eddy spoke with her dad on the phone. After he listened for some time, he replied,
"Yes, sir, I will do that", and then, he hang up.
"What did daddy tell you?"
"He wants us to hold an engagement dinner to make it more official. Would you like that? Eddy asked her.
"Of course, I would love that. In fact, the sooner the better." She replied in excitement.
*** *** ***
After Mitch hang up the call, the two men looked at each other.
"We can sign the deal right after the engagement party", Mitch started,
"Since Eddy knows what he has to do and understands his responsibilities, I think that we can hold the dinner in about a week."
Wallace nodded to this and asked, "You mentioned another deal with Mr. Corns?"
"Ah yes, I plan to marry off Amanda to him", he replied.
Wallace looked shocked and almost exclaimed,
"You can't be serious Mitch! The man is old enough to be even your grandfather. Why would you marry off your daughter to him?"
Mitch looked at his friend coldly and stated,
"That girl is no daughter of mine!"