• "I never really gave much time to the thought of marrying you, dear."

    "You never give much thought to anything."

    Lillian and Jacob lied there, looking at each other intently, although neither of them would admit it. This is a conversation they had several times before this most recent dispute, so at this point they wanted the other to believe they were past the point of caring.

    Of course, they weren't.

    "You might be right."

    Lillian scoffed. "I know I'm right."

    "If you know I don't want to marry you, then why are we still together?"

    "Jake, you are dense. It's been four years. If you didn't want to marry me, you would have already left me."

    This piqued Jacob's interest. Mostly because it wasn't what he was expecting to hear. "And what kind of twisted logic is that, Lil? I explicitly stated that I did not want to marry you."

    "I chalk all of this up to a fear of commitment, which is absurd anyways. We've spent four years together already, and the only thing that marriage would change is my last name and what you file on your taxes." Lillian began to let down the guard of her ambivalence, and look genuinely interested in the conversation.

    "You forgot children, and 'until death do us part'."

    "Not really. We could have children now and not be married. We could be together forever, too, and still just be dating."

    Again, Jacob looked at her with interest, though his gaze hardened slightly. “So, legality and taxes is what you think the reasons are that I don't want to marry you? What about the fact that you're moody, that your family doesn't like me, and that sometimes I think you're cheating on me?”

    “If you cared so much about my moodiness or my family's feelings for you, we wouldn't be having this conversation.”

    Jacob slid away from Lillian and sat up, his back to her. “The cheating, then.”

    “You know you're the only one for me. You're just looking for an excuse at this point to not marry me.”

    He sighed, the mop of black hair falling in front of his eyes. “And what if you're right?”

    Lillian sat up next to him, her slender arms wrapping around his waist. “Fear of commitment, dearest.”

    “Can you blame me? I'm only twenty-four.”

    “Which means,” Lillian started to say as she slid from behind him to curl up in his lap, “That you have been with me since you were twenty. If you wanted to spread your wings, you would have already done so, and left me.”

    She blinked rapidly, cursing underneath her breath as a tear from Jacob's eyes fell onto her forehead.

    “But I don't want to leave you, Lillian.”

    A tear from her, now. “I know that you don't.”

    Jacob leaned down, scooping up his bride into an embrace.

    “Until death do us part.”