9 THE Proposal

John slowly stood up and picked up the ring from the cake. He pulled out a handkerchief and cleaned it. Then he slowly knelt down in front of Eira.

He looked at her and spoke, "Eira. Like I already told you at our first meeting, I really like you. After all this time I spend with you my feelings only grew more and more and I don´t know where it will stop growing. Maybe never because right here and right now I promise you that I will always love you and I will cherish you as long as I live. I am not allowed to ask you to be my girlfriend and honestly I don´t want to do that anymore. I want you to spend the rest of our lives together because I´ve realized I can´t live without you anymore. So I want to ask you... Will you marry me?"

Eira´s heart pounded at every word John spoke and he looked sincere. Like she already felt it was coming, he asked her to marry him. This whole proposal was wonderful and the whole atmosphere added to make this proposal perfect.

Everything was perfect.

But Eira hesitated.

She wasn´t able to just simply answer "Yes". She couldn´t do that.

Eira took a deep breath.

She thought about what she had to say now.

"John... thank you for this beautiful proposal. It really touched me... But I can´t say yes. I only know you for a short while and I don´t love you right now. I am sorry. In the past months you became someone for me I can depend on but right now I am not ready to marry."

When she said that John looked down. Eira felt bad for rejecting him but she really tried to consider his feeling and not immediately shoot him down.

An awkward silence fell upon them.

No one spoke a word and John was still kneeling in front of her.

Eira didn´t dared to speak another word. She already said everything she had to say.

John slowly stood up and looked at her.

"You really don´t want to marry me? After all I did for you? What is missing? What can I do to make you love me?" He asked.

"I- I don´t know. You are a nice guy but I just don´t feel anything romantic for you. I just can´t force myself to love you."

"Then tell me what should I do to make you see me in a romantic way. Am I not good enough?" John got louder and louder in his desperation.

Eira went stepped back, startled to see him like this. She didn´t know what to answer him and just stayed silent.

John nodded to himself and then looked at her again.

"Then maybe I have to show you a different side of me. Come on. Let me drive you home." He tucked the ring into his pocket and took her hand.

They both went to the elevator and went down to his car.

In the car Eira didn´t know what to do to get rid of the somewhat awkward atmosphere.

She cautiously asked him, "Are you mad?"

He looked straight at the streets and answered her, "No. Why should I. You honestly told me how you were feeling about me. There is nothing I have to be mad at."

After his answer they both went silent again.

An eternity later they arrived at Eira´s home. John again pulled the car door for her open and she went outside. She turned around to face him.

"Thank you for today. I really enjoyed it and I am sorry I had to reject you."

John again just nodded and waited for her to enter her house safely. Eira just shrugged her shoulder and turned around. She almost reached the door when she was pulled from behind. She spun around and collided with John´s chest. She looked up at him startled. He stared right back at her with a dark expression she never saw before.

He leaned down and whispered into her ear.

"I still didn´t give up. I´ll show you what kind of man I really am."

And then he pulled her chin up and kissed her.

Eira´s eyes widened at the sudden contact and froze still. Her instinct told her to push him away and she did. The kiss was good but there was nothing that touched her heart. She was embarrassed that John had took her first kiss and she blushed a bit but... it wasn´t as magical and beautiful she had dreamed about her first kiss to be.

As she pushed him away she could see that he looked disappointed.

"I won´t give up that easily. You´ll see." He whispered and walked away.

Eira still stood at the same spot frozen.

As a little girl she always dreamed of her prince Charming who would someday come and bring her with him to his palace where they would live together happily together ever after. John was the prince Charmin she always dreamed of. He was in every aspect perfect. He was almost too perfect to be real. Eira chuckled to herself. There he was her prince Charmin and she just rejected him. Maybe she was too scared to admit, that he was too perfect for her. She wasn´t the pure and beautiful princess who the prince is supposed to fall in love with.

Every girl would die to get a proposal from John but here she was dumb enough not to accept.

Maybe she wasn´t the Cinderella for the prince Charming.

Maybe she was the evil stepsister who would find her true love in a poor baker.