Ocean Words

Clara and Nathan

Life is a
series of
thousands
of tiny
miracles

-

"You will listen to me, young lady!" He puffed out his chest, "My word is final!" And the bearded man exited the room, banging the door closed. Leaving the green-eyed girl alone, mouth agape, face red, and an inferno building inside her.

This was not the first time Clara had heard of the news. Oh, she heard about it a thousand times before. But this was the first time her father was really enraged about it. At first, she slowly talked him out of it, but with no fruit to bear. As complex as it may sound, she was never going to back down.

She will never have an arranged marriage. And worst of all, not with a man five years older than her that she had never met before.

She was going to stop this.

-

It was an old tradition, to not see each other before their sacred wedding day. But time moves fast and traditions were meant to be changed. Rather than never, they only saw each other twice in their life. The first one was the very first meeting, and she was reluctant as hell to meet her supposed-to-be fiancé. After variously failed reasonings and attempted escapes, they entered the restaurant.

"Remember, behave well and nothing goes wrong." Her father warned.

Her mother gave her a sympathetic smile and squeezed her hand, reassuring her only daughter in red; figuratively and literal. As hard as she wanted to wear a blue dress, her father insisted on wearing the red one, saying, "His son likes women in red."

She laughed inwardly, what a joke. The moment her father was welcomed by the opposite party, she was greeted with icy blue eyes staring right at her. She could immediately feel the heat rushing to her cheeks as her soon-to-be husband smiled at her.

His name was Nathan.

The dinner went on and most of the time were used for parents to discuss their parently things. The young ones, being only Clara and Nathan, talked idle chat, neither have the intention to deepen the relationship. What was the point of it, since they were engaged and forever was waiting upon them.

And since then, she started to despise the thought of forever.

-

The second meeting was a friendly dinner between families. Clara's older twin brothers took their chance to bombard the future groom with useless questions, trying to define him. Meanwhile, Nathan's 11-year-old sister, shyly glanced at Clara the whole night.

Though secretly, Clara always loved children, especially little girls like Nathan's sister. She was bound to talk with her as the minute goes by. The next thing they knew, Clara was listening non-stop at her new companion. Laughing, asking, joking, and she was already begging Clara to talk in French.

Clara knew her languages, and French was one of them. She was always confident in other languages, but never in her mother's; which was English. That night, she wowed both families, and even receiving a standing ovation from her little friend.

She blushed even harder as she heard her fiancé clapping, with eyes gleaming with wonder and a genuine smile on his face. The twins feeling smug for their sister's achievement and boasted a little about her, before continuing with the endless questions thrown at Nathan.

The night went by and both families had fun, even Clara and Nathan felt the same, if they were to be honest. There was still some slight feeling of uncomfortableness between the engaged. All in all, both of them tried their best. But they didn't expect the night to get longer.