Nine
1030 Words
The sun was shining the next morning. The phone was ringing and Anna woke up immediately. Mark was just disturbed.
“Hello?” Anna answered
“Oh my God Anna, he proposed!!!” she heard JJ yelling over the phone.
“Wait, what?” she said trying to understand what happened.
“Niko! He proposed to me last night!!!” JJ said full of excitement. “Oh, and good morning”
“Good morning” Anna said. “I need a coffee for that”
“I am coming over” JJ said and hung up the phone before Anna got the chance to say anything.
Anna looked at the phone confused. What she said? She thought. Niko proposed? When? She looked at Mark thinking. Mark opened his eyes unwillingly.
“Have I heard correctly? The phone rung? What time is it?” he asked half awake.
“Yes, JJ called. She is coming over. Apparently Niko proposed” Anna said still in surprise.
Mark jumped out of bed.
“He did it!” he yelled and hugged Anna.
“You knew it?” Anna looked at him surprised.
“Of course I knew. Who do you think bought the engagement ring?” he said with a huge satisfying smile on his face
Anna was looking at him and felt dizzy. I am such an i***t she thought. This is the ring that I found. He never wanted to propose to me. The ring was bought for Niko to give it to JJ. Immediately she felt sad. The picture of Mark and Nora dancing last night came in her mind. No Anna, don’t go there, she said to herself.
“Come” she said with low voice “She will be here any minute now. We need to put some clothes on”
Mark moved closer to her.
“It will only take a few minutes” he said and started kissing her.
“Mark stop” Anna said cold. “I need to get ready before she comes.”
Marked looked at her surprised.
“What’s going on? Did I say something wrong?” he asked.
“No, everything is fine” Anna said and moved away from him.
Mark was confused.
“OK” he said. “I will take a shower”
Nora woke up at 7 the next morning. It’s still early she thought and she turned side. She was still feeling tired but she couldn’t sleep. She kept thinking of Mark and last night. She sighed. And now, back to reality she thought as her phone rung. She saw Amy’s name blinking.
“Hi Amy”
“What happened last night?” Amy asked.
“We danced! And we spoke a bit!” Nora said feeling as if she was dreaming.
“OK, and?” Amy asked patiently.
“What you mean and? Nothing more. He still has no recollection but we had a moment”
“Oh you had a moment?” Amy said laughing.
“Don’t make fun of me” Nora said pretending to be angry at her.
“Come on Nora, I am still surprised that you fall in love with him on every lifetime”
Nora sighed.
“Well, is my destiny I guess”
Amy was laughing.
“And what happened next?”
“Nothing. After the song finished I just left the dancefloor. Went back to the table, grabbed my stuff and left.”
“The majesty has left the building” Amy said and they laughed. “I bet he was sad to see you leaving”
“Well, no sign of a rain. He is happy today.” Nora said.
“I guess you are right. Will you inform the rest or should I do it?”
“I will sent a message to the group for everyone to see”
“OK. Nora, I don’t want to put any pressure on you, but we are running out of time”.
“I know” Nora said taking a deep breath. “ I’m doing everything I can”.
“I know, I am just saying that you might have to take some extra measurements. “
“You are right” Nora said.
“Have to go now, inform the rest and will talk to you soon”
“Bye Amy” Nora said and hung up the phone.
Anna was preparing the coffee when she heard the doorbell. She headed to the door and saw Mark coming downstairs.
She opened and JJ jumped on her yelling and laughing!
"Oh my God " she kept repeating.
A smiley Niko was standing behind her.
Anna gave her a warm hug and invited both in.
"Congrats" Mark said to JJ and gave her a hug. He looked at Niko.
"Finally " he said and hugged him as well.
Niko was still smiling.
They headed to the kitchen and Anna served the coffee with breakfast.
"Shouldn't actually be the other way around? Having breakfast at your place?" Mark asked teasing Niko.
"We owe you dinner" JJ said and grabbed the butter.
"OK, show me the ring" Anna said smiling.
JJ showed her hand. Yes, this is the one I found Anna thought. She tried really hard to stay happy for her friend. JJ was glowing and she definitely didn't want to make her sad. Today is JJ 's day she thought.
"How it happened?" Anna asked.
"Well, we left the party shortly after you did. We went home and someone was behaving really weird"
"I was nervous " Niko explained himself. Everyone laughed.
"As I was saying, I noticed that something was odd, but I thought that he was just tired. We reached home and I took a shower."
"I had to be very fast since I knew that I did not had that much time. So I took the rose petals and spread them all over the bed. Took a nice bottle of wine, and I was waiting for her to come out"
"Oh that's so romantic " Anna said with dreamy eyes.
"So you can imagine my surprise when I went out of the shower."
"The towel fall down and she was crying " said Niko.
"OK, too much of details " Mark said and everyone laughed.
"He came closer, took my hand, said the most wonderful words that someone can say to a woman and he asked me to be his wife" JJ said with tears in her eyes.
Anna gave her a hug.
"I am so happy for you" she said trying to hold her tears back. She was not sure why she wanted to cry. She was definitely happy for her friend but on the other hand, the ring was not for her.
"Niko, I think we can move to the living room, leave the ladies alone to discuss their own things" Mark said and gave a soft kiss to Anna. Anna forced a smile but JJ caught the sadness in her friend's eyes.
Once they left, JJ grabbed Anna’s hand.
"Hey, is everything OK?" She asked
Anna sighed.
"Honesty I don't know" she said
"What happened?"
"No, we will not discuss this now. Today is a happy day. Your day! We have time for my problems. Now, show me the ring again".
- Writer
