C1 My Choice

Maria:

Straightening myself I looked up to see who it was. Who had dared to hold me like that? Not that I minded, I was just curious. Looking up, my eyes met a pair of golden eyes. No, wait! Not golden, they had the color of flames or the lava from a volcano. I had never seen eyes like that before.

“Are you alright?” Asked the man in front of me with a frown.

If I had knots in my stomach before, now suddenly I had butterflies as I gazed into his eyes forgetting my worries.

Who was this man? He was tall, broad-shouldered and his thick raven black hair fell over his shoulders. You could tell from the clothes that he was a rich fellow. Could he be one of the elite people who came to attend my wedding?

“Are you okay?” He asked again, when I didn’t reply him at first. Snapping me out of my imagination. “Oh oh yes, no, yes I mean please excuse me.” I stammered and quickly withdrew myself from him and continued running down the hall not wanting to take a glance back and trying not to fall again.

Finally I was out of sight, pacing around a garden I had found. I was thinking of my next move. I needed to find a way to leave without anyone seeing me. My eyes caught a gate in the garden. Not too tall, but for a five feet girl like me it was quite tall for me. I have to jump over this gate I thought.

I tied my gown above my knee. Ready to climb, I pulled a strand of leaves to support myself from crashing. As I was trying to climb over the gate, I heard a voice from earlier behind me.

“Umm excuse me, if I may ask what do you think you are doing?” the voice said

Frightened thinking I had been caught by the security. Oh shit I was going to be arrested on my wedding day!

“I can explain, I can explain… this is not what it seems like. I….Woah woah woah.” losing my balance I fell down and hit my butt on the ground.

“Owwwww ahh” I cried.

I picked myself up and dust my clothes. “Great! Now my dress is ruined. What else can go wrong today.” I thought. I turned to see the person who had made me make a mess of myself. And to my surprise it was the very attractive man from earlier with the eyes I almost got lost looking at.

I noticed I was already staring at him too much, I quickly tapped myself out. He didn't even move a muscle to come help me. A lady in distress. He just stood there observing and probably waiting for an explanation. What a man!

“Can't you see I am trying to escape?” I finally spoke out, realizing what I just said, I gasped.

“Trying to escape…” He repeated.

I didn't have time for this, I need to escape before anyone notices am gone. Yes this man was very good-looking but I can not be distracted by his beautiful body and forget my plan to abscond. I started climbing again, not caring what the man might think of me. But it was of no avail, I turned around and still found him looking at me, like he wanted to call a psychiatrist.

“Please, please can you help me. If you can just give me a little boost over the gate. I owe you one.” I pleaded.

I had already lost my brain and I knew it. “I have a lot of questions. If you're so serious about escaping, why don't you use the normal route of how you came in to go out?” He asked confusedly.

“Oh my God, what part of escape do you not understand? I don't want anyone to see me.” I replied.

“Why?” he asked again

I became very exhausted, always explaining myself. “ Have you ever made a decision before because of an urgent need, and then suddenly, you decided not to go along with that decision?” He nodded his head.

“Yes, that's how I am feeling right now, I do not wish to get married to this strange man whom everyone is speaking ill about. A man I have never seen before or know anything about aside from bad things.” I explained.

“Okay, so you are the bride getting married to Daniel Thompson today?” He asked, placing a hand on his head.

“For a cute guy like you I have to say, you ask a hell lot of questions. Well, words fly very fast I guess. Yes, I am. I am getting married to Daniel Thompson. Now that I have answered your questions, would you now help me climb over the gate?” I asked impatiently.

“No can't do.” He replied with a straight face.

I was so shocked after I had explained literally half of my predicament to this man, he still didn't want to help me.

My eyes widened. “So you're telling me you won't help a woman in distress, Huh?! Is this how you were trained to help a lady?” I asked, stamping my feet.

He laughed so hard holding his chest. He even looks more handsome while he smiles. Oh gosh, where has this man been all my life? If I wasn't supposed to get married today, I would have been imagining forever with this man.

“Okay, first I was never taught how to help a woman run away from her own wedding and I would have helped if the woman in question wasn't planning on escaping because she didn't want to marry me.”

I felt a big blow to my chest. I was dumbfounded. What did he just say?

Hello Maria Falcone, I am Daniel Thompson, your soon-to-be husband.”

“WHAT!…” I screamed. You're Daniel Thompson!

I stood still, my eyes widened and I was still in shock. This handsome man standing in front of me was Daniel Thompson. And he just caught me trying to run away from the wedding. What was he going to do to me?

“I… I didn't know, I mean I wasn't expecting… I thought Diana said you were—” I continuously stammered and my cheeks flushed red.

“I was what? Ugly like a fat pig, I did hear that. Not everyone knows how I look. People just assume because they expect the worst from me.”

We stood for a few minutes before he finally broke the silence. “I thought the Falcone family only had one daughter, I never knew there were two daughters. I was planning on marrying Diana Falcone today, how come I've never heard of you Maria?” He curiously asked.

“Well, you see I'm the older one. Diana is my half-sister, my mother and father got divorced when I was just five years old. Diana was born before the divorce, she's the Falcone family heiress, so you see I'm more like the black sheep in the family. Does that make you consider still getting married to me” I explained hoping he wouldn't reject me.

“Oh come on, tell me about it, I can relate to being the black sheep in the family, you're just like me. You already know my story. The bastard son of the Thompson family. You must have heard a lot of things about me, both the ones that are true and the ones that are not true.” He said.

“No, no don't. Don't talk down on yourself like that.” I said out loud.

He looked at me curiously. “One minute ago, you wanted to jump over a gate because you didn't want to marry me, and now another minute you're telling me not to talk down on myself. You fascinate me, Maria.”

“Well, I just don't judge a book by its cover.” I said

“Oh because I look good-looking. Huh?” He asked with a smirk on his face.

“No, not just that, I just feel like you shouldn't speak down on yourself, not everyone is pure as snow,” I explained.

He stared at me with a broad smile. It was already getting creepy. Why was he looking at me like that, I thought?

“So Maria I know we don't know each other, but I think you know that we have our wedding to attend.” He extended his hands to me.

“Oh… oh ok, let's go.” shut up, Maria. You can not marry this man, remember. You need to run away. “No, I can't marry you.”

“What?” Daniel asked, utterly confused.

But what about Mom, how would she get her treatment? I thought to myself. I could see Daniel was already uneasy.

“No, I mean yes. Let's get over the marriage.” I finally said. The word felt heavy to say.

“Look, Maria, this doesn't have to be a big deal unless you make it to be. We both don't want this, but we have to. Immediately the trusted funds are released we will get a divorce and go our separate ways. I promise this is not constant.” he said, handing me a flower in the garden.

“Okay, sure.” I agreed.

“So shall we get married now, Maria Falcone?”