Gerden Ibrahim

Marrying?

Jeez mom, we're just dating.

Who knows if it'll even work out, was my response back then.

Fiona was great and all, but I was young and planned on not settling down anytime soon.

Maybe things wouldn't work out.

Maybe I'd date many more people.

Back then, I was a little cautious when it came to love.

But the longer we were together, the more I started realizing that Fiona was the one.

She was critical of living here.

Well, not of where we were, but of where we would be going one day.

She couldn't imagine living with all those old people.

I mean, we weren't used to any.

I told her that we would be old too, then, but that didn't make the whole concept sound any better to her.

She was similar to her parents in that way.

Back then, I hadn't even told her that I wasn't planning on having children, although I believe we were in a silent agreement on that.

We often joked about all the places we would visit if we ever got exiled.

Unfortunately, life never goes as planned.

My feelings were never as muddled as on the day Fiona told me she was pregnant.

We were sitting in her parents' garden, watching our little brother play in the grass.

We were alone, and he was too young to understand why his sister was smiling and crying at the same time.