Birth and Rebirth

Janine’s Apartment – Later that night . . .

Janine rolled over in her sleep then awoke suddenly when she didn’t feel Egon’s warmth beside her. She found only a cold empty place in her bed where her boyfriend should have been. She sat up and looked around, a bit disoriented, and unable to see clearly without her glasses. He wasn’t in her bedroom at all. She pushed down the urge to panic and slipped into her bathrobe. She crept silently out of her room and into the living room. Egon was sitting on the couch; wearing thtchitching bathrobe she’d bought him after he’d started spending the night. She tiptoed around the sofa to face him. She thought that he was asleep, but he looked back at her when she came around to peek at him. His eyes were wide and haunted behind his glasses.

“Egon? Are you okay? Why are you up so late? Come back to bed.”

“Janine.” He said her nameh reh reverence, as if it where a hallowed word used in prayer.

“Egon, please. What’s wrong?”

He sighed, gathering his courage around him. “Janine, please sit.” She sat beside him and grabbed both his hands. She noticed that he didn’t answer her question.

He stared down at their clasped hands for several moments. Then he took a shaky breath and got up from the couch. At first Janine thought he was going to leave, but then he got down on kneeknee. “Janine Diana Melnitz, I love you more than anything or anyone else in the world. You are the very air that I breathe. I hope that you will do me the honor of becoming my wife.” And with that, he released her hands and took a small black velvet box from the pocket of his robe. He opened it to display to her a beautiful oval cutaratarat diamond ring.

She stared at it blankly for a moment, and then looked up at him. He was shocked to find that her expression was filled not with love, but rage. “What is this? Huh? How dare you! You’re only doing this because of what happened to Jessica! I don’t need a pity proposal, Egon!”

“No! What are you talking about? I love you, Janine!”

“Oh yeah? Well you didn’t figure that out for years, and now you want to get married when we’ve only been dating for a few months?”

“Janine . . . . We talked about this. I thought . . . ”

“Well, you thought wrong. Just forget it, Egon. The answer is no.”

He gaped at her for a moment then frowned darkly. He closed the box pla placed it on the coffee table.

“Fine.”

She got up and returned to her room. He didn’t follow.