Melanie
Begrudgingly, I made my way inside and went straight to my room, ignoring the two adults there.
A few seconds later, Grace popped her head through the doorway, smiling sheepishly at me.
"Melanie." She cooed when she saw I was ignoring her. "Come on, come sit a while with your visitor."
"I don't want to." I retorted. I could picture her rolling her eyes at me, before leaving for the sitting room.
I threw my bag on the bed in anger as I went to the bathroom to freshen up.
"Traitor." I kept muttering.
Grace is going to have it with me today. She betrayed me twice today. And that is not counting all the other minor betrayals.
I feel so hurt and pained and angry. But I knew I was just being childish. Etiquette demands that I at least show that level of appreciation to someone that went out of his way to render help to me.
I came out of the bathroom and I could hear Grace's laughter and his deep chuckle. What was so funny that they are both all laughs?
I flopped down on the bed angrily, and was ready to do my night beauty care, but I stopped midway and stood up from the bed, ready to head to the living room.
This was my apartment and neither of them should make me a sudden hermit. I was also craving a hot cup of coffee. I gulped and headed to the living room.
When I got to the living room, they were huddled together staring at something, I ignored them and headed to the kettle of coffee calling me. I picked up the kettle and poured the substance into a cup. I brought it close to my nose and inhaled it's rich aroma, sighing in satisfaction.
That was when I heard Grace's voice, "That's Melanie at the Park on her seventh birthday. Isn't she a cutie? Look at the gap between her teeth." Then Tony laughed humorously.
In shock, I poured out the coffee I had just sipped back into the cup. What was that? What was Grace doing, showing Tony such an embarrassing picture?
As if propelled by an unseen force, I was beside them in seconds and I snatched away the picture album from them and hid it behind me, childishly.
"You don't have the right to show a stranger my picture. I've told you I do not like it." I blurted out to Grace.
"And she came out." Grace laughed and I glared at her.
"I was not showing him your pictures, you can check what you're holding."
"What?" I brought my hand forward and true to her words, they were empty picture frames. I bit my lower lip and looked at her apologetically.
"Melanie, I know how much you hate it. So, unless you tell me otherwise, I'm not gonna leave you in an embarrassing situation." She gave me a reassuring smile
"So, I'm gonna leave you both together, while I attend to myself." She stood up and moved to my side, "he's your visitor, tread him nicely." She said walking away.
What happened to 'I"m not gonna leave you in an embarrassing situation.'? This is an embarrassing situation, Grace. I glared after her even long after she had left the living room.
Tony cleared his throat, bringing my attention back to him. He glanced up at me and my heart ricocheted in my chest, I quickly averted my eyes.
Calm down, you heart. I berated it. Why does everything and everyone around me today seem to stand for Tony?
Once I was sure, I was not going to stutter, I signaled for him to sit down.
"Coffee?" He nodded and I went to refill his cup and brought my own cup along. Thank goodness, it was still warm.
Once, we were settled, I glanced up at the wall clock and it was a few minutes past the hour of nine.
"Your one minute has started."
"Okay. Thanks for your time." He replied and I nodded my head.
It took him a few more seconds and he hadn't said anything yet. I held my cup of coffee in my hands as I stared at everywhere else but him.
"What are you going to speak to me about?"
"How's your wrist?" We spoke at a time, which led to my blushing and he smiled. This broke a little ice between us and we relaxed somewhat.
"My wrist is all better. It wasn't really that painful." I replied him and I flexed my wrist in order to assure him.
"Melanie, I need your help." I was instantly filled with a feeling of foreboding at his statement and I sat up.
"What's going on? Are you alright? Are you hurt?" I threw this questions at him as different thoughts filled my head. But if anything should happen to him, why will he come to me? I reasoned.
"It's actually nothing serious. I'm sorry I brought it up that way." He sighed, then continued.
"I'm going to come out clean to you." Tony stated as he sat at the edge of his seat.
"It's actually a proposal."
"Okay. What sort of proposal." He tucked his hand into his pant's pocket and brought out a folded paper. He straightened it and gave it to me.
"This is a rough draft. If you will accept it, I will bring in the real documents on a day we agree on." There was a confident and arrogant aura around him when he said that.
What could be contained in this? I opened it and read it.
A CONTRACTUAL PRE-NUPTIAL AGREEMENT
"What's this?" I looked up at him after reading the first line.
.
"I want us to get married, Melanie."
"What?"
"Don't get me wrong, Melanie. You won't be doing it for free." He rushed out, then he pointed at the document with me, "You can see that most of it is blank, that is for you to input your price and also how long, you'll intend for the marriage to be and any other thing you might have in mind."
I could only see red as I stared at him.