As though noticing Arianne’s attention, Mark quickly turned to meet her eyes briefly. “What are you looking at? Is there something on my face?”
Arianne averted her eyes guiltily. “Excuse you! I wasn’t looking at you. I was looking at… Er, the beautiful scenery outside your window! Look at the weather today—it’s great! It’s not snowing! It’s a bit cold, though.”
He raised his eyebrows in skepticism. “And what’s so different about the scenery from your window and mine, huh? Is it so great that you had to try to look past me for it? Should I apologize for blocking your view?”
Arianne’s tongue was tied in embarrassment. Why did he have to expose her like that?
They arrived at the fancy Italian fine-diner Mark had booked. When they stepped through the door, Mark placed his hand on his hip to form a small loop for Arianne, who naturally hooked her arm through it.
Her heart was beating fast. She had to admit that going on a date definitely brought some highs.
Arianne deliberately picked a glass of juice as her drink, heeding Mark’s advice. If he forbade her from drinking coffee, then even stronger liquor like red wine must also be off-limits. Red wine was, after all, still alcohol and should therefore be avoided by a breastfeeding mother.
To her surprise, Mark stepped in. “No, scrap that. She’ll have red wine as well.”
“I still need to breastfeed Smore at night, don’t I?” Arianne questioned. “Isn’t alcohol bad for that?”
“O-Oh my god, y-y-yes!” Arianne started to stutter. Why a ring all of a sudden? And to have it fit her finger! She waited for Mark to delight her with even more romantic, face-burning things after seeing her reaction.
“Okay. Good.”
‘…That’s it?!’
Frankly, Arianne did not mind his lacking skill in romantic words because more of her attention was focused on how familiar the design looked. It was not at all mainstream, but Arianne kept getting the nagging feeling that she had seen it before—on paper in its design’s phase, perhaps. She wondered if it was just from her wealth of experience in fashion designing—maybe she had come across a design like this before. Still, the box bore no insignia or brand name, so she could not whence it came.
Comments
The readers' comments on the novel: Dangerous Love: You Are My One and Only Bride