“Okay,” I said. This sure was an odd way to start a proposal. Maybe he was just messing with my nerves, trying to make me believe something was wrong before he popped the question.

“We both have so much potential for ourselves. I mean, you are an excellent teacher, and I’m finally reaching the top of my job.” He stared at me as if he was looking straight through me.

“Yes, I think we’ve finally reached the point where we are the best that we can be,” I said, reaching for his hand once more. This time he quickly moved it so that he could pick up his glass. I pulled my hand back, setting it into my lap.

“Maybe for you,” he muttered, “but I’ve still got much more to achieve before I feel as if I’m the best I can be. I mean, I might be getting close to the top, but there’s so much more that I want.”

“And I will be here for you when you get to that point,” I said. My nerves were on end as I tried to figure out where exactly this conversation was going.

“I greatly appreciate that, but at this point in time you would be supporting me as a girlfriend, and that isn’t what I want,”

I could feel the tears rimming my eyes. He couldn’t possibly be doing what I thought he was doing. Could he?

“What do you mean?” I croaked.

“I mean . . . that I think that maybe we should . . . Take a break.” He said it all so nonchalantly. He was ending something that I thought was going to go much further, getting rid of my as if it were nothing, and that’s when the tears started to pour.

“Are you serious?” I almost yelled as I stood up from my seat.

“Bella, please calm down. If you would just listen to me,” he pleaded, trying to grab my hand to pull me back down, but this time it was me who pulled their hand back.

“No, James! I will not calm down. You brought me in public, made me get all dressed up, just so that you could break up with me?” I said through my teeth. I could feel everyone’s stares, and I honestly did not care. They meant nothing to me. They only thing that mattered was the fact that the man I thought I was going to spend my life no longer wanted to be with me.