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Seeing the cars that already lined their driveway, Anne groaned. “Oh, great. We aren’t going to some fancy restaurant with meal choices that you can’t pronounce. We are the restaurant.”
“What?”
“It seems Father is throwing me a graduation party without telling me about it,” she whispered. “I wasn’t even allowed to invite any of my friends.”
“It can’t be that bad.”
“All of these cars,” she gestured wildly. “Every single one of them. They all belong to some former associates who are all probably only here to find out how Father is faring after Mother. He hasn’t worked law in years, ever since he had a falling out with my Uncle Warren. I don’t have a clue what he does in his office every day. I just found out that he sold his half of the building to my uncle.”
“Well,” Derek whispered, leaning over the console to give his girlfriend a quick kiss. “We will play nice, smile, be polite, and then in an hour or so we will escape outside and hopefully see some stars.”
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An hour later, Derek carefully led her outside.
Mary had already disappeared, celebrating her sister’s graduation with her own friends who were all trying to figure out how to sneak into Project Graduation.
Elizabeth had boldly walked out of the house holding an unopened bottle of wine and the keys to the car that Walter Elliot had bought Anne for a graduation present. That was until she had realized it was a sensible car like her sister and she swapped the keys out for her sportier car.
But Anne didn’t care that her sisters didn’t stick around. Her aunt had left the party as well.
“Where are we going?” Anne whispered, glancing back to make certain their escape hadn’t been spotted. If she had to listen to one more toast celebrating her important milestone, Anne would probably do something. She didn’t know what, but it would be something.
“Outside. Away from these crowds,” was all Derek would say.
Noticing her slight shiver, Derek removed his suit jacket and placed it over her shoulders. “I never realized it could get chilly in May.”
“Sometimes. Most of the time it’s just muggy and humid. I think it was just leaving the air-conditioned house and coming out here.” A moment later, Anne handed the jacket back to Derek, who didn’t put it back on. “Come on. There’s a swing out back. Mom loved to come out here, stretch out, and read.”
“I got my placement orders,” he informed her after a long period where they sat on the swing and moved back and forth.
“Yeah?”
“Italy. Next week. I’ve been given two weeks to see everybody before I have to report to base before being shipped out.”
“Italy,” Anne breathed. “That’s so far away.”
“I want you to come with me,” Derek stated, getting down on one knee in front of her. “I want to marry you. Soon. This week even. I love you more than anybody and anything in the world and I can’t be apart from you any longer.”
“Oh, Derek,” she sighed, a tear running down her cheek as he slid the ring on her left ring finger.
“Say yes,” he whispered.
Anne studied the ring on her finger. She could barely believe that Derek had proposed to her at her graduation party. Granted, yes, he had been smart enough to take her outside where nobody was paying any attention before he asked but... this was not what she wanted. Instead, she slid the ring back off.
Holding the ring out, handing it back to him, Anne whispered, “I can’t marry you yet.”
“Anne?”
“I can’t marry you right now. Maybe in four years after I’ve finished college and gotten my degree...”
Interrupting, he mumbled, “There’s no telling where I’m going to be in four years.” Shaking his head, Derek started to pace. “I’m being shipped out to Italy for crying out loud. I want you to go with me.”
“Chicago accepted me,” Anne whispered. “I’ve been dreaming about that school ever since freshman year. You even said, only a few months ago when that letter came in, that it was a good plan. I have a full ride, Derek. Room. Board. Books. Tuition. Everything.”
“But...”
“Derek, I love you. I want to say yes more than anything, but I can’t marry you right now,” Anne whispered, reaching out a hand towards his shoulder. “Maybe if we had a long engagement.”
“Why,” he asked, jerking backward. “You just said that you can’t marry me right now, and I’m going to Italy! Do you really think long distance will work with that much distance between us? We’ll barely ever see each other, and even then, mostly through our screens.”
Drawing back, Anne flinched. “What are you saying?”
“Maybe we should break up,” he blurted out.
“Because I won’t marry you before you leave?”
Derek looked at her before slowly saying, “It might be for the best.”
“Because I don’t want to marry you yet? I’m eighteen! You’re nineteen! We’re too young!”
Shaking her head, Anne struggled to understand what was happening. This couldn’t be happening.
“I don’t think we can survive the distance,” he stubbornly stated. He recalled just how difficult it was between his own parents when his father was stationed overseas and their mother opted to stay stateside to give their children some stability. “It nearly destroyed my parents’ marriage, and they were together much longer than we were.”
“So, you’re breaking up with me.”
“It’s for the best,” he lied.
“It’s the biggest mistake that you will ever make.”
“We don’t know that,” he mumbled, certain that he actually agreed with her.
“Fine,” Anne snapped, holding out the ring that she had been playing with in her left hand. “Here.”
Nodding his head, Derek took the ring from her outstretched hand and walked off without another word.
It wasn’t possible for Anne to know how Derek took the ending to their relationship. She only knew that her heart was shattered in little pieces on the floor around her, too tiny to even be able to pick up and glue back together again.
