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Mark rolled to his side and watched Toni as she slept. The soft moonlight was gently illuminating part of her face. She looked so peaceful. Mark leaned gently to kiss her on the forehead. She stirred a bit and placed her hand around Mark’s waist. He smiled at her, wondering what it was that she could be dreaming about. ‘Mark…’ she mumbled, surprising him. Instead of answering her, he planted a kiss on her cheek. ‘Why are you still up? It’s already 3 in the morning.’ Toni said as she looked at the clock on the wall of Mark’s room. ‘I couldn’t sleep. I was just thinking of something.’ He said, stroking her cheek with his index finger. ‘What was it that you were thinking of?’ she asked, a bit worried. ‘Here goes nothing.’ He thought as he took in a deep breath. ‘I’ve just been thinking of the future.’ He said, wrapping her up in his arms. Mark lay on his back and Toni rested her head on his chest. ‘What about it?’ asked Toni. Mark detected a hint of sarcasm in her tone. ‘Well, I just realized that everything looks so uncertain and unclear. I don’t have anything planned out at all.’ ‘How come?’ Toni looked up at him, resting her chin on his chest. ‘Well, I didn’t really want to make any plans without you. I want to spend my entire future with you. I can’t start planning anything without consulting you because it won’t be just my life but yours as well… ours.’ Mark said, preparing himself for another brush-off from Toni. She never took him seriously when he spoke like this. ‘Oh sweetie, how thoughtful of you… well, don’t you think it’s too soon for us to do all that? Maybe you just feel like you do want to get married ‘coz everyone around us are getting married.’ She said. Mark sighed and sat up straight. Toni sat up beside him and placed her arms around him. ‘Mark, its not that I don’t think of the future. I do. I think of it everyday. If you’re thinking whether or not I want to spend the rest of my life with you, honey, you know the answer is yes. But please, not now when we’re still enjoying ourselves. We’re still young. You yourself, you told me you didn’t want to settle down until after you’re in your 30’s…’ ‘Toni! I said that… 4 or 5 years ago! I was a kid! Of course I didn’t want such responsibility… we were in high school when I told you that! I’ve changed a lot… I want to settle down, have a family, have plans in life… I want to have a future.’ ‘Mark! We can’t just settle down right away just because you want to. What about me? We have to compromise you know. Things can’t always go your way.’ ‘Fine, okay, you’re right. What confuses me is that why don’t you like to talk about it? We can talk about what we want without getting married you know. We can just talk about things. At least somehow we have something planned out. Believe me, I’m not doing this only for myself but for you as well… and the children that we might have in the future. We can just talk about it, Toni.’ ‘Mark, you wouldn’t understand if I told you why I don’t want to talk about it. You wouldn’t understand at all…’ Toni said. Mark stood up angrily. ‘How should you know that I wouldn’t understand if you won’t even try to tell me?’ he shouted before leaving the room. Toni couldn’t cry at all. She bit her lip. ‘You wouldn’t understand because you’ve never been through what I have survived through.’ She whispered as she heard the front door slam shut and Mark’s car speed away.
Toni woke up, feeling something stroking her cheek. She got up slowly from the sofa’s armrest, pain shooting through her neck and back. She had fallen asleep on the couch, waiting for Mark to arrive. She opened her eyes and the soft sunlight greeted them as it poured through the windows. ‘Hey…’ a voice said softly. ‘Hey to you too…’ she whispered, realizing that it was Mark. ‘I’m sorry for storming off like that. It wasn’t right to leave you just like that.’ He said, taking her hand in his. ‘It’s okay. It wasn’t right for me to not explain things to you. I’m so sorry.’ Toni said, rubbing the sleep away from her eyes before looking at him. ‘Well, I’ll forgive you, but only on one condition. Oops… make that two.’ Mark said. Toni looked weirdly at him. ‘Okay… what is it then?’ she asked slowly. Mark got down on one knee and held on to her hand. ‘First, promise me that we will talk about the things we need to discuss sooner or later.’ He said. ‘Okay. What’s the other one?’ she asked. ‘The other one?’ Mark whispered huskily, leaning closer to her and kissing her. “Yep, the other one.’ Toni said, kissing him back. ‘The other one is that you say you’ll forgive me as well, but since you’re already kissing me I guess I’m already forgiven huh?’ he said as Toni laughed. ‘Don’t I get another “condition” since the last one was sort of wasted?’ he asked, giving her a little-lost-puppy look. ‘Okay…’ Toni said, looking deep into his eyes. ‘Hmm… I want to spend the rest of the day snuggled up with you.’ ‘That’s it?’ Toni asked. “Yeah…’ he said, smiling cheekily at her. ‘…unless you have other plans… if you know what I mean…’ he trailed off, kissing her neck. ‘Mark!’ she shouted as he suddenly started tickling her. |
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