Chapter 4: An Unexpected Proposal

"My wife is as handsome as when she was a girl and I fell in love with her; And what is more, I have never fallen out." --Abraham Lincoln

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Roselle swung herself off the play structure and studied the ring that Armani held out before her, glistening in the light of the sunet. That ring had to be fifty grand minimum, and one hundred grand maximum. If this was a joke, it was certainly being blown out of proportion.

"Marry you?" she asked. "You mean after these fourteen years of us never even seeing each other--"

"I know it's insane," Armani said, getting up. "Believe me, I know how crazy it sounds, but when I lost everything, you were the one person I always had in the back of my mind. That promise you made when we were children, that you would marry me if I became the president of the United States."

"You're crazy. You became president for such a stupid reason? And you're really expecting me to be imprisoned by a joking promise that I made as a 7-year-old child?"

"Of course not." He sighed. "Look, I had my own reasons for becoming the president. Were you one of the biggest reasons why? Yes, but I made my choice. Even if you reject me here, I still want to serve my country. And you don't have to marry me either. I would never want to force you to do something you don't wanna do."

"Obviously."

��I just thought that maybe now that we're older, you would have a clearer perspective of what you want and what this is between us, if there's anything at all. Just tell me what it is you want, and I won't bother you anymore."

Roselle took a deep breath. "I'm kind of confused right now. This is all happening so quickly."

Armani nodded. "Then I want you to move to Washington D.C. with me while we figure it out."

"I can't. This is all too sudden. I've never even left Michigan. I don't have anything in D.C. And I can't just leave my parents and Michelle. We're a team."

"I completely understand. To be honest, I knew that you'd probably say no, but I had to at least try." He slowly brushed his hand across Roselle's cheek, and ran his fingers through his hair. Somehow, his touch comforted her. "You've turned out to be so beautiful, Ro. I love you as much now as I did back then."

Roselle, though comforted by his hand, pushed it away. If she got addicted to the way he caressed her, that would be too dangerous.

"Goodbye, Roselle," he said. "I'm just glad I got to see you one last time."

"Me too . . ."

Armani walked off into the sunset, which was flickering its final lights. He turned, faced Roselle, and waved goodbye one last time. She did the same. She watched him until he was so far away that he was tiny, until eventually he couldn't be spotted at all. The sun completely set, and there she was, alone in the dark.

* * *

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!" Michelle screamed. "So that's it? The love of your life, who is the next confirmed president may I add, pops out of nowhere, proposes, and you won't even think about it?"

Roselle's face flushed red. "You'll understand when you're older."

"Don't give me that. I'm only two years younger than you."

"Well, I have responsibilities here."

"Like what?"

"You, Mom, Dad, and our freelance beauty business."

Michelle chuckled.

"What's so funny?"

"First of all, Mom and Dad are dying to get us out of the house. Why do you think they're on a cruise right now? They wanna get away from us. Second, our beauty business barely makes any money in this small town. Third, PLEASE, CHANGE YOUR MIND AND TAKE ME WITH YOU! I hate this place. It's so suffocating."

"That's not true. I want a quiet life. It's . . . nice here I guess. Quaint."

"You're such a liar. This town sucks and you know it. You know what I think? You're scared. You're afraid to spread your wings and fly because this town is all you've ever known."

Roselle rolled her eyes. "Well, excuse me for not wanting to completely uproot my life and ruin it."

"You'll never get anywhere playing it safe. You're too fierce for this place. If you stay here too long, it'll destroy you. Look, I'm not pushing you into getting married or whatever, but all I'm saying is, there have been so many times you had the opportunity to do something great, and you wasted it because you'd rather be out here in the middle of nowhere than take a chance."

"Well if you hate it here so much then why don't you leave?"

"I stayed here for YOU."

The sisters locked eyes for a moment.

Michelle sighed. "I'm afraid that once I leave you're gonna be all alone." She stormed out of the room.

* * *

The next morning, Roselle woke up and entered the living room where Michelle sat, watching TV.

"Hey," Roselle greeted her sister.

"Hey," Michelle greeted back, not looking away from the screen.

Things were still awkward from the heated argument last night. The room was tense and flimsy. Roselle was trying to defuse the situation. "So, what are you watching?" she asked.

Michelle sighed. "You don't wanna know."

"What do you mean?" She turned to face the TV screen, and it was the early morning news talking about Armani Parker. Wait a minute, it wasn't talking about his presidency. It was talking about his new fiancée.

"The news just announced that Armani got engaged last night to Lily Strobe."

"WHAT? You mean, the daughter of that billionaire, Warren Strobe?"

"That's the one. He was a backer of Armani's election and he said their marriage has his blessing 200%."

Roselle gawked at the TV in awe. "I . . . I don't believe this. How did he move on that quickly? I thought . . . I thought . . ."

"Look girl, you had your chance and you said no. Don't you dare try to make him seem like the bad guy. He probably needed a first lady to help with his political career, and since he couldn't be with the person he loved, he had no choice but to marry Lily."

She watched the TV where Armani and Lily were at a press conference answering questions about their upcoming marriage. She studied Armani's face closely. When he smiled, it was mechanical and polite. It wasn't the same as how he smiled the other day when they were at the park together.

"He doesn't love her," Roselle said with confidence.

"Doesn't matter. What's done is done."

She stormed off onto the balcony.

* * *

About an hour later, Michelle came out to see Roselle, but she didn't turn to face her. She just stared out into the street. "I want to be alone," she said.

"Stop being sad," Michelle said. "We're gonna fix everything."

"How?"

"Turn around."

When she turned, her sister was there, holding suitcases and backpacks, with papers in her hand. "What are you--"

"Sis, we're moving to Washington D.C. I just booked our flights."

"You did WHAT?"

"I already talked to Mom and Dad. They were thrilled. I told them that we're moving our beauty company over there. Come on, let's go. You know you want to. I'm tired of listening to you moan and cry. We're marching down there right now and you're gonna tell Armani how you feel, okay?"

In that moment, Roselle's life flashed before her eyes. It was true. Her life truly wasn't going anywhere in this small town. The only one she really had left was her sister, and even she wanted to leave. If this didn't work out, they could always just move back home as a safety net, right? Even though it was irrational, there was only one thing for her to do. "I'm in."

"That's the spirit! Our driver is almost here. He's gonna drive us down to the airport. I already packed your things. Look out, D.C. The Reyes girls are coming into town!"

* * *

When the gates for the plane opened on the flight to Washington D.C., Michelle had a hard time getting Roselle to get on board. It was both of their first times on a plane, for the first time in the history of ever. Not only was that an issue, but just what this symbolized was risky. Her safe life was about to become very risky.

After almost a half an hour of arguing with Michelle, the last call for the flight was the thing that finally pushed Roselle to get on board. Before boarding, Roselle looked into the empty airport one last time, savoring her glance. 'Goodbye, Michigan,' she told herself.

The girls walked down the aisle and found their seats. Not long after, the plane lifted off into the air. No going back now. She only hoped this wasn't a huge mistake.

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