FELT ALIVE

GABRIEL

The sun was still high in the sky and Saturday was off to a great start. I loved sitting by the pool and drinking my glass of whiskey on the rocks. I had company too. And it wasn’t my mother.

“I’ve been thinking,” Lilliana said.

“Yes?”

“Perhaps tying the knot isn’t such a bad idea,” she muttered and her tone was carefree, as if we were only discussing our daily activities and not our long-term goals.

“Say that again?”

She turned and grinned at me.

“I don’t know, it just doesn’t seem to be an enormous problem to me.” she stated with that same grin.

I was in awe. Lilliana was just as shocked as I was to learn that our mothers were arranging our future together behind our backs. I assumed that her family had already spoken to her.

“Who spoke to you? Your mother? Maybe your father?” I questioned her, but she gave me no answer.

Lilliana totally ignored me. But she spoke in the same airy, carefree manner, gazing at the pool.

“Oh, come on, you know I don’t give a damn about what