Everyone stared.

My parents stared at me, I stared at them, my aunt Cassie stared at Alexander, Alexander was too awkward so he stared at me, my two siblings stared at their phones, and the baby stared into an oblivion of nothingness.

Slowly I turn my head and let my gaze land on Alexander who unblinkingly stares back.

"Has anyone ever told you how gorgeous you are?"

Both of us whip our heads to my aunt who sits there grinning, looking straight at Alexander.

"Um thank you." Alexander answers back in confusion.

Ben smirks and takes the entire scene in intently, putting his phone down.

Alexander clears his throat before asking everyone,

"How was your flight?"

They all nod their heads in appreciation and thank him for giving them first class tickets.

The silence doesn't take long to come back as we all stare at various things once more.

It's not that we all didn't want to talk, it's just that we had no idea how to go about it, especially Alexander who was used to being in charge with everything.

"So honey, you're engaged." My father says straightening up.

Letting out a breath, I nod my head,

"Yes we are."

"And how did this come about per say." My mother questions

"Well-"

"It's soon yes but your daughter and I love one another very much and we thought 'why wait?'" Alexander says happily, grasping my hand in his.

Wait what?

When the hell did that happen?

My family looks at me with a questioning gaze and I look to Alexander for help but instead just nod my head.

"That's pretty much it?" I state which comes out more of a question.

"Wait a minute," Ben, my brother speaks up, "Is he the guy on the phone?"

"There's another guy?" My aunt gasps.

"What no! That was Alexander." I quickly rush out as the man in question tenses up beside me.

"Oh." Mumbles Ben before nodding his head in satisfaction.

"When was this?" Asks my mother once more.

"A month ago." Ben replies in my stead.

Glaring at him, I smile politely at my mum.

"Alexander why don't you come help me with the drinks." I mumble, glaring at him, not giving him a chance to deny.

My aunt smiles at my attempt to have some alone time with with my fiancé and engages my family in a conversation.

They all get up at and start to look around the huge house in fascination.

Dragging Alexander to the kitchen, I spare not even a second before I'm onto him.

"What the hell was that?" I nearly screech.

"What was what?" He questions back sheepishly.

"Don't play coy with me Alexander! Why the hell are we pretending to be in love and further on getting engaged." I scold in a hushed whisper.

Alexander narrows his eyes and he looks hurt for some unbeknownst reason.

"I'm not pretending to be in love." He grounds out.

Sighing in exasperation, I shake my head.

"And neither am I, you know I love you but why lie about the engagement?"

"I don't want your family to think bad of me," seeing my questioning look, he further explains, "look maybe this is too soon for you to hear this but somewhere down the road, I do want to marry you, if all goes well, I mean if it's up to me it will but you get the gist. So my point is why lie about it now?" He answers seriously as he wraps his arms around me and pulling me into him.

I stand there stunned and frozen in his arms.

Regaining my senses, I gulp before answering.

"But why lie now? We'll break this engagement soon anyway even if we do get married later on," my voice lowers right at the end, the prospect of marriage not familiar with me at all and I certainly didn't know how to handle it.

"How about we not break it?" Alexander mumbles, now he was the one tense and frozen in place.

Stepping back from him, my eyes wide, I clear my throat before asking,

"What are you trying to say Alexander."

An all too familiar and thick silence consumes us as Alexander stares at me intently.

Finally after what seems like ages, his lips part to answer me.

"And this looks like the kitchen!" Comes my mothers voice from the entryway.

The both of us snap our gazes too my family peering around, taking in the garden through the huge windows situated in the kitchen.

Looking at Alexander, I can't help the despair that runs through me.

What was he about to say?

I badly wanted to know and felt pissed at the interruption.

I know for a fact that particular question will haunt me endlessly this entire day.

*********

A few hours had gone by and it seemed like everyone had been acquainted with one another.

Surprisingly my brother and Alexander had gotten on together and right now were lounging on a sofa talking about football or some type of sports.

My dad soon joined in and they all looked quite happy while I was situated in between my mother and aunt as we all stood next to the window.

I was holding my baby cousin, Theodore in my arms as I swung him to and fro.

I had adored babies from as long as I could remember and couldn't get enough of them.

I'm glad that sentence stayed in my head otherwise I would be getting strange looks from my sister who was currently standing beside me.

"He seems like a great man." My mother mumbles as she looks at Alexander out of the corner of her eyes.

I nod my head, a smile forming on my lips, "He is, the best actually."

Allie giggles at my words and mumbles something along the lines of 'love struck idiot' which my aunt nods her head at wholeheartedly.

"Don't tease your sister." My mum scolds though the smile on her lips is all too evident.

"When will we be meeting the in laws?" My mother questions excitedly while my aunt nods her head along, looking at me.

"I was thinking maybe tomorrow all of us could go out for lunch." Comes a voice from behind.

My aunt and mother nod their heads in agreement and grin widely when Alexander pulls me into him.

Theodore gurgles in my arms and raises his chubby hands towards Alexander who grins excitedly and almost snatches him from my arms.

Warmth blossoms through my heart as I take in Alexander playing along with Theodore, tossing him in the air and catching him.

Both of their laughter ringing in my ears.

Allie nudges me and smirks in understanding while I roll my eyes and stare back at the two of them.

Was it bad that I could imagine Alexander doing the same to our child in the future?

-----------

😂