The Magic of Love

Chapter fifteen

"Hmm", I exclaimed after a while.

"What?", Oliver asked.

"Nothing", he looked at me with a funny expression on his face.

"Nothing is NEVER nothing", Oliver teased me, and I giggled.

"Fair enough", I laughed again, " I was thinking..."

"Ahh, there we go. There was something in that nothing after all!", he was mocking me, and I slapped his arm.

"Hey! No violence is needed!", he exclaimed.

"Hahaha!", I laughed. Why he was so funny!?

"When you finish laughing would you share what you were thinking about?", he asked, still mocking me, and that's why he was granted with another slap on his arm. This time harder. But maan, his arm was so firm that it hurt my hand!

But I bit my tongue, and did not say a thing.

I sighed.

"Okay, I was wondering why were you worried that Isabella might refuse your brother's proposal?", I finally said.

He nodded.

"I see. Well, it was because of the age difference between them, on one hand. And due to her job on the other", Oliver answered.

"And what's the age difference?"

"It's 12 years. My brother is 38 and Bella is 26."

"Oh, wow", I exclaimed involuntarily. "Sorry!"

"No worries", he waved his hand and smiled calmingly.

"And what's her job?", I asked further.

"She's an influencer and as much as I don't want to admit it... I was fooled by her appearance", he said and blushed.

I looked at him questioningly.

"Well, at first, I saw a girl who has a great appearance and carefully maintains it. I don't have much experience, but from the little I knew until I met her, I decided that she was no different and that her appearance and beauty came first - before my brother, and definitely before starting a family that included children, and you know better than me that pregnancy brings with it many changes", Oliver explained.

I nodded, "And precisely because of these great physical changes, some women are afraid of pregnancy. Yeah, I get it, but you can't let fear guide your life and desires, can you!?"

"Agree", he replied, and smiled shyly.

"Honestly, I can't blame you, at least not completely", I smiled, "It's normal. You can't determine what kind of person is before you when you don't know them, so you let their appearance speak to you, and sometimes it tells the truth, but other times it hides it. The important thing is to push aside the visual image until you get a deeper one based on the character of the person, only then can you have a complete idea of them. "

He nodded.

"But sometimes, even though it's rare, you know what kind of person is before you, or next to you with far less communication needed than usual", I added, thinking of Betty and George, and mom and dad.

"Yes", Oliver confirmed. "Sometimes just one look is enough to know it's the one", he said and blushed, then shifted his gaze back to the road and focused on it.

"Is that the case with your brother and Isabella?", I asked.

"No... I mean yes.... I mean... I haven't meant that earlier. And yes, they kind of figured it out rather sooner, I guess", Oliver replied, his cheeks turning even redder than before.

"Aha. What did you mean earlier then?", I asked out of curiosity.

"Well... I meant...mmm... you...uh... Let's just go back to their story, I still can't get anywhere with it", he joked nerviously, the blush slid from his cheekbones up to the hairline and down his neck, hiding under the collar of his coat. Even his ears had turned slightly pink. I smiled. He was so cute! I didn't know what he didn't want to tell me, but I felt with my heart that I'd like to hear what Oliver was hiding now because it was important. I felt it!

But I didn't ask. He was right. Oliver still was failing to tell the whole story about the ring, something always interrupted us.