Chapter 7: Chapter 7

I gasp as the little turbulence wakes me up from a small nightmare. "You ok?" Mark asks. Taking a seat and looking at me.

"Yeah I'm ok." Even though I'm not really, I say it. I don't want to see her again because I'm scared of what Mark told me. regarding his mom. That affected me in a way that hasn't gone away.

"Do you want to drink something?" Mark wants to know if I'm telling the truth.

"Sure. Just water, "I say.

Someone gives me a glass of water a few seconds later. "Here."

"Thanks."

"Are you nervous?" He asks, not looking at me.

"Well, kind of... Okay, a lot." I like how his jaw looks when I look at him.

He is looking at me. "Are you looking me up?" He asks. Wow, he has never acted this way before.

I start to blush. "Anyway. I can't look at the man who will be my husband?"

He chuckles. Are you going to play that card every time I make fun of you?"

"No." I pause, and he thinks he has won because he walks away. I'll call you Mrs. when we're married "husband."" I try hard to keep from smiling.

As he looked over, he tried to keep a straight face. He fails, and soon he starts to smile and softly laugh, which makes me laugh too. "You're impossible." He says.

"There's nothing you can't do." I turn around and look out the window to try to enjoy the last 30 minutes of this flight.

Couldn't this go any slower?" I say this to the belt that moves the bags in a funny way.

"Don't worry, we'll get to it." Mark says this as he puts his hands on my shoulders.

"You already know that my mom will ask how we are doing. She won't be the most helpful person either." I turn around.

"It's ok. We'll spend an hour at the hotel talking about the questions' main points." I nod at him, and he gives me a big hug. "Don't worry about it, it's fine. Well be good."

We still hug, and I'm starting to get used to it. PDA I mean. It works.

"Finally." When I turn around, our bags are on the moving belt. We get them, get in the car, and drive to our hotel.

When we get there, we check in and bring our things up. So, what should we talk about? I ask while I'm sitting on the only bed in the room. So it looks like we're sharing a bed.

"Uh. Middle name?" He asks.

"Savi." This is what I say when I'm lying down and want to sleep so badly.

"Thaddeus." He says this while he is sitting in the chair at his desk.

"Hm. Favorite color?" I'm just asking because I don't know what else to say.

"Really?" He asks. I shrug. "Fine green."

"Mines purple." "I'm going on my stomach," I say.

"You know, we could also talk about the basics of our relationship." He says. When I saw him play with a pen, I got out of bed.

"Ok. When did we start dating? "I ask.

"Shall we say three years?"

"It looks good. How did we meet?" I ask because he writes everything down like he needs it to write a book or something.

"Uh. A coffee shop. You forgot your wallet, and I was right behind you, so I paid and we left." He says this while making a funny face and waving his hands. It makes me laugh.

"Could it turn out differently?" I ask. He does nothing but sigh and nod.

"Ok, just a couple more and I think we should go." He pauses.

Before he can go on, I stop him. "What was it about me that you liked?" I say, "Almost too fast." Maybe he didn't understand me.

Still, he did. Know how I know? He looks. First of all, I did say something like that. I love, or at least really like, the way his eyes look. Second, they're big, which means that my question has caught him off guard. "Uh... um... good question," was all he could say.

I didn't wait around to see what he had to say. "I say your eyes."

"What?" he asks. "Explain."

I continue. "Your icy blue eyes draw me in like a..." I can't think of a good way to compare the two, "a creature that lures its prey to it and then catches it. And how they get brighter when you're happy and darker when you're sad. It makes me feel like I know you better." What I just said was all true.

He must have been shocked to the core. "Anything else." He does his best to be quiet.

"When we're together, you make me feel so safe." I think I see a little bit of red on him.

Wait, why is his face red? Am I blushing?

"How do you feel? How did you come to love me?" I ask to get the attention off of me.

"Um..." His face is once more red. You're not afraid to stand up for yourself or say what you think."

I sigh. "Sorry, but that's not good enough. She'll think it's too typical."

"Ok. I love that every day I find out something new about you. I found out, for example, that you don't like shopping malls or shopping in general. I feel like every day I get a perfect gift that I want to use again and again. Or, I've seen that your eyebrows furrow and your lips curl into your mouth when you're not paying attention." Even though he turns his face, I can still see that his ears and neck are red.

We went a while without talking. "Well, that's it, I guess." I think we should stop being quiet.

"Yeah, we should call your mom and tell her we're here and ready to meet her." Mark stands up and rubs the back of his neck.

He said, "I'll get my phone and call her." I say walking to my bag.

I get my phone and type in the number she gave me in her letter. It's making noise. "Hello?" I think I hear something, but it doesn't sound like my mom. I think my mother's voice was a little bit lower than this.

"Uh, is that Elizabeth Cooper?" I ask. I don't want to sound crazy if this isn't my mom's phone number.

"Stay put." On the phone, I can hear the other person. "I made it for you." The voice on the phone says "don't," but it is hard to hear.

"Hello?" I could tell now that it was my mother's voice.

"Mom?" I say.

Nothing is going on.

"Hello. Mom?" I ask again.

"Hi! Hello! Here I am. Yanna, is it really you?" She wonders.

"Yes, mom, it's me." I say. "I am now in New York. Getting a room with someone at a hotel." It's not a lie, but it's not the whole truth either. "I can't wait to meet you. That okay?"

"Of course, you can come here if you want to. Do you need my address?" She wonders.

"Yes. Thank you." I try to cover up how worried I am. She gives me her address, which I write down. "Alright, I'll see you soon."

"Yeah. I'm looking forward to it." She says.

"Yeah me too." I fake a terrible smile even though she can't see me.

"It'll work out." Mark says he's going to walk up to me and give me a big hug.

"This is what I mean." I whisper something to him.

"How are you?" He asks, pulling away just a bit.

"I feel safe when you do things like this."

"This is something I'll probably have to do often." Was the only thing he said as we left the hotel and went to my mom's house.

…

I can't help but bounce my leg as we drive to my mom's house. Mark reaches out with his hand to stop it. "Hey. It's ok. Don't worry." I just nod and start bouncing the other leg.

Mark looks at me. I shrug. "I just can't stop. I've always had a lot of nerves. Just wait until you see one of my famous nervous breakdowns."

So, you shouldn't have one anymore. Here we are. " Oh gosh. Already. I don't know if I'm ready or not. "It's ok. Right now, I'm here."

I take a big sigh. "Ok."

We get out of the car and walk towards the door. "You're going to knock, right?" Mark asks.

"Yeah. Sure, no problem:. I turn and look at him again before going back to the door. I haven't even tried to knock yet.

"Ok I'll knock." He puts up his hand and does it again before I can stop him.

"Coming." I can just about hear a voice that isn't my mom's.

When the door opens, I see a girl between the ages of 11 and 12 standing right in front of me. It's possible that she was the one who answered the phone. "Hi. Do you need help?" She says so.

I don't say anything. "Uh. There, does Elizabeth live?" Mark asks.

"Uh. Yeah I'll get her. Step inside." What she says. As we walk in I look around. "Mom! Someone wants to talk with you!" Then she takes another look at us. "In a minute, she'll be down. Please take a seat." Then she pulls out her phone and walks away.

"What do we do?" I'm quiet when I talk to Mark.

"Let's just sit." And we do.

She walks down the stairs not long after that. She hasn't even looked up yet. "How can I help you?" she starts, but when she looks up at me, she stops herself. "Yanna."

"Hi." That's all I get.

Mark says something. "Hi I'm Mark."

"I'm glad to meet you. Please take a seat. Want something?" She wonders. I'm not sure. No, I'm sorry. Uh mom?"

"Yes?" She asks in a very excited way.

"Um... part of why I'm here and asking about the dress is because I'm..." I gave a sigh. "Engaged."