AFTER TITANIC
Chapter Twenty
"So, you said you loved each
other, he asked you to marry him, and then he had you, and you said
nothing?"
"Yup, that was pretty much
it." Rose and Abby were sitting on the rooftop, drinking tea at sunrise.
"Then what happened?"
Abby asked, as if she were analyzing the situation.
"We went to sleep."
"And when you woke up this
morning?"
"I kissed him and told him I
needed to get home and here I am."
Abby giggled.
"What?"
"I think you should wear a
long veil with your hair up," Abby stated.
"I haven’t said yes yet, so
we shouldn’t be worrying about this," Rose said sharply.
"Yet! You said yet!"
Rose rolled her eyes. "New
topic, please."
"And you should walk down
the aisle with something that smells good."
"Apple pie," Rose said
lightly, closing her eyes. They laughed happily.
Then Abby stopped smiling and
looked at her mother quite seriously. "You love him," she said,
"and you love Margaret. And I love them both. I’m sixteen, Ma. I’ll be
going off to a university soon."
"Not that soon!" Rose
countered. "We still have two years…"
"Marry him."
Rose bit her lip. "What
if…" she stammered. "…if he’s not my soulmate?"
Abby shrugged. "You already
found your soulmate. And now he’s gone. He’s been gone for more than sixteen
years. So what if he’s not your soulmate? You can still be happy with him. You
love him."
"I’ll think about it,"
Rose said, and hopped off the roof onto the fire escape and climbed through the
window into the apartment. Abby slid in after her a moment later.
"We’ll have to move,"
Abby commented, looking around their small living room. "This place isn’t
big enough for a family of five."
"You plus me plus James plus
Margaret equals four. I think you may be wrong in the head." She knocked
playfully on her daughter’s skull.
"You mean you’re not going
to even think about having another child?"
Rose shrugged her off.
"If you don’t want to have
his baby," Abby said flatly, "maybe you shouldn’t marry him."
Rose spun around quite angrily
and began to shout. "Hey! I’m not an old maid! I have plenty of years left
in me and I don’t have to waste them being alone! I’m not just a girl who lost
love! I’m a human being, capable of passion! If I don’t want to devote all of my
time to a little baby, that’s my choice! It doesn’t mean I don’t love—"
Abby smiled. "It looks like
you’ve made your choice, then."
Without a word, Rose turned
around and left for James’ apartment to tell him yes.