The Second Proposal

For a few seconds, all Emanuele can do is stare at Joshua. The two of them are still naked, and the distance between their bodies is as minimal as possible.

"What?" she asks, softly. I wonder if she had heard right. Had her emotions stunned her enough for her to hear such a request?

He gives a quiet laugh, then opens a confident, sentimental smile.

"Will you marry me?"

The girl immediately sits up, leaning against the headboard of the bed. She covers her own nakedness with the blanket, still looking at the man, who also sits down.

"I..."

Several things go through her head.

The first was that no, she could not get married. Not in that life and not ever. All the misfortunes that had happened to her, all the horrible and unfortunately scarring traumas that were etched into her skin; all that made marriage itself a terrible idea.

According to the books that the young woman read, especially during her teenage years, marriage was the union of two people. Total commitment to each other, com