Chapter 4 - THE ENGAGEMENT
Wyatt proposed on a Sunday morning in my apartment kitchen.
No photographers.
No restaurant.
No violinist hiding behind a plant.
I was barefoot and burning pancakes.
He placed a ring box beside the syrup.
“I had a speech.”
I stared at him.
“What happened to it?”
“You burned breakfast.”
I laughed.
Then cried.
Then said yes before he finished asking.
For three days, we told almost nobody.
Then I called my parents.
Mom went silent.
Dad said:
“That’s quick.”
Four years apparently qualified as impulsive.
Madison sent:
Congratulations.
Nothing else.
That evening, Dad called Wyatt privately.
Wyatt told me about it immediately.
“What did he want?”
“He asked whether I had considered how marriage might affect my future at Bennett.”
I frowned.
Wyatt had become director of engineering two years earlier.
“What does marriage have to do with your job?”
“That’s what I asked.”
“And?”
“He said Madison is committed to the company.”
I stared at him.
“He actually said her name?”
“Yes.”
“What else?”
“He said sometimes people choose the wrong person because they confuse chemistry with compatibility.”
I stood.
“We’re not going to that party.”
Wyatt caught my hand.
“Yes, we are.”
“Why?”
“Because hiding from them makes their behavior feel normal.”
He was right.
So we attended.
I wore a pale-blue floral dress.
Wyatt wore jeans and a gray shirt because Dad specifically requested “casual family clothes.”
The lawn looked perfect.
The house looked perfect.
The Bennett family always looked perfect from a distance.
May you like
Then Marian walked toward me carrying Grandpa Arthur’s box.
And my father forgot there were witnesses.
