Chapter 2 Doubts and Confusion

Johnson was walking aimlessly thinking about what had just taken place in his office a while ago. As he tried to understand Alexandrine’s thoughts on signing the divorce papers without raising any objections, he was brought back to the past once more. This time around, it was about his past with Tina and how their relationship derives.

“ Johnson, why did you suddenly call me out here?” Tina came to Jason’s encounter. Johnson called her to come to a park which he decorated himself with attention and care. Tina was too preoccupied with the reason Johnson had suddenly asked to meet that she didn’t notice the decorations around the park at all.

“ Tina, I called you here today because I have something important to tell you.”

Suddenly, Johnson got one knee and extended to Tina what seemed like a tiny little gift box with an ornament ring inside. He was smiling and gesticulating during the whole scene. With happiness and hope in his eyes and heart, he forwarded the famous question to his girlfriend, “ Tina, my love, will you make me the happiest man alive and accept my proposal?”

Tina looked as if she was in a daze. For the last five minutes, she just stood there without uttering a single word or making a single noise. It was as if she was trying to process the situation in front of her one way or another.

Worried that his girlfriend hadn’t uttered anything for the last five minutes, Johnson felt weird inside. “ Tina, is everything alright?” Why have you suddenly gone quiet? Is everything alright with you?”

After a long time of being quiet, Tina muttered the following as soon as she opened her mouth, “ Did you just propose to me, Johnson?”

Seeing the expression on Tina’s face, Johnson was feeling the same weird feeling he felt before. Answering Tina’s question, he mumbled, “ Yes, I did. What about it?”

Taking deep breaths, inhaling and exhaling, Tina retorted coldly back to Johnson, “ I’m sorry, Johnson, but I can’t marry you—------- for now.”

Johnson stood back up not understanding why Tina would reject his proposal. All kinds of thoughts started crossing his mind at once, like Tina probably found someone else which was why she was rejecting him.

Tina stopped his baseless reflections with a statement, “ It’s not like I don’t wish to marry you, Johnson; It’s just that I don’t want it to be now.”

Everything Tina was saying didn’t make sense to Johnson; He didn’t understand Tina or at least, he couldn’t understand her.

“ I don’t understand you, Tina,” Jason mumbled. “ I’m trying but I can’t understand why you would suddenly reject my proposal?”

Tina gasped before answering, “ I like our current relationship better; Why waste the whole by getting entangled?” Johnson still didn’t understand Tina’s point of view until she said, “ I just think what we have will change if we got married, you know—-----------”

“ Maybe, you’re right.” Johnson finally said in annoyance.

Seeing how hard he was taking the whole affair, a conniving idea suddenly sprouted in Tina’s mind.

“ If you want to get married that badly, why don’t we do this instead?” Tina’s sudden change of tone apprehended Johnson’s attention.

“ What?”

“ Why don’t you fulfill your parent's demands and get married to a girl of their choice?” Tina sneered, irritating Johnson in the process.

“ Get married to someone else? What are you—--------?”

Tina anticipated his anger and said quickly, “ Don’t lose your cool until you’ve listened to the whole thing?”

???

“ Please your parents and get married to a girl of their choosing. If within a year, we still feel the same about each other as we do now, then we can get married. What do you say to that? It’s not a bad deal, is it?”

Johnson was too lost for words to react in any way. His silence started to worry Tina as he’d been quiet for such a long time. Johnson noticed her anxiousness and mumbled, “ If that’s what you truly want, then, I’ll comply with your request.”

“ Really!-------- I knew it, I knew you’d understand my point somehow.” Tina hugged Johnson happily but the latter didn’t return it.

From that day onwards, Johnson did as it was expected of him by his parents. On one of the numerous blind dates his parents set for him, he met Alexandrine, and the two got acquainted with each other.

One day, after accepting his proposal to get married, Johnson asked Alexandrine about her situation.

“ Are you also in the same predicament that I am?” Alexandrine didn’t understand what Jason suddenly meant as she asked her that question. She was kind of confused and thought of asking him for clarification but decided against it at the last minute.

“ Did you also have someone in your life you’re trying to forget?” Johnson mumbled once more. “ Is that why you accepted my proposal?” Understanding his point, Alexandrine thought of what to tell him.

“ Yes, that’s right!” She nodded. “ My ex-boyfriend left me for another girl. Can you believe it?” It was obvious to Alexandrine that telling the truth to Johnson would make matters complicated, so instead, she decided to play along.”

“ I’m relieved to hear that.” Johnson slightly grinned. “ Let’s both do our best to have a pleasant and joyful relationship!”

“ Yeah!” Johnson and Alexandrine shook hands, terminating the flashback.

Back to the present day, Johnson was still very much upset about Alexandrine signing the divorce papers quite easily and thought to himself that maybe he never meant anything to Alexandrine in the first place.

A sudden thought crossed Johnson’s mind, a thought he didn’t envision. “ Did she perhaps reconcile with her ex-boyfriend? Could that be why she was in a hurry to sign the divorce papers?”

Johnson’s thoughts were interrupted by a phone call from Alexandrine.

“ Hello, Alexandrine!” Johnson picked up the phone call. From the other line, Alexandrine kept silent for several seconds before actually saying what she intended to say.

“ I just called to let you know I’ll be moving from your house today; that’s why I called.” After saying what she intended to say, Alexandrine hung up the phone call and so did Johnson.

Hearing Alexandrine’s voice over the phone and thinking back on all their moments together, Johnson started having doubts about Alexandrine and their relationship. To clear his head, he entered his car and drove off to Tina’s place.

Meanwhile, in Johnson’s apartment, Alexandrine was packing her stuff in a suitcase. As she was packing her stuff one by one, she stumbled upon their wedding picture frame. Holding the frame tightly in her hand, a tear escaped her eyes and fell right through the picture.

“ To think that everything is over now and that there's nothing I can do to change the current situation. That’s so upsetting—------ It’s not fair that I have to give up on him when I love him so much. Not fair, not fair—--” Alexandrine mumbled in anger.

“ We look so good in this picture frame, but it’s unfortunate how none of these had ever been real in the first place; they were all just a sweet dream I’ve had, an illusion and nothing more than that.”

As she put back the wedding picture frame where it belonged, she went back to packing her things in the suitcase. Johnson on the other hand had just reached Tina’s place at long last.