The Nuptial Agreement

"Hey! Jane, right?” he asked upon seeing her approach his table.

 She nodded her head in acknowledgement and they both sat themselves at the table.

After exchanging pleasantries they sat together in a few moments of silence, with neither of them sure on how to proceed; this was not any usual scenario among two complete strangers to get acquainted with each other.

"Should we get a cup of coffee?" he asked her after a while.

"Yeah, sure," she replied, not wasting her words.

Sipping on her coffee she asked him, "So what are we doing here?"

"I really don't know, if I'm being perfectly honest," he answered sheepishly.

"I mean, I was pretty sure that this was a hoax until you agreed to meet," he continued.

"Hmm; so have you given the matter any thought?" she replied.

"I still don't know what to think of it; what about you?" he asked.

"What have I got to think about?" she answered, a little surprised.

"Well, this concerns you as much as it does me, doesn't it?" he replied, a little tentative.

"I am what you call... resigned to my own fate," she said with a sigh.

"So what, whatever I decide goes for the both of us?" he inquired.

"I guess so," she replied.

After a while she excused herself to go to the washroom and as she disappeared among the sparsely crowded food court, his mind went back to the utterly strange mail he had received two weeks back.

Dear Dan, 

              I don’t know if you are aware but I am one among your mother’s many aunts and you are my great nephew in that relation. Anyway, the reason I am contacting you out of the blue is because I am in the final stretch of my life, well actually, this might be a mail from the beyond as when you receive this , I am probably not of this world anymore. Anyway, though I know that you are most probably not aware of my existence, I have had the chance to keep a tab on your whereabouts and your life in general from a distance. Don’t take this the wrong way but I am sure you would not be so proud so as to admit that at this moment of time you could do with some help on the financial side of things. I am more than willing to extend my help to you on that matter and as such would like to leave to you a sizable part of my fortune. However, as you know in this world nothing comes for free and I have a very peculiar request and in fact, a necessary condition in order for you to inherit that not so negligible sum. I have a daughter of your age; well, actually not my own daughter but someone who has been in my care from when she was just a baby and whom I have raised as my own; I want you to marry her. You should know that this is not a matter I take lightly and I have come to this decision after giving it much thought. There is no one in this world I care for more other than her and so I hope you would appreciate the magnitude of trust I am placing in you on the little information I have about you and the general idea I have of your life from a very great distance and so, I sincerely hope you would not betray this trust. I hope you will think about this offer and give it a fair consideration without coming to a final decision. I know that in this day and age, relationships are not forged in the way I am suggesting but I do think that you two could end up having a good life together. My daughter is aware of this particular matter and you would be relieved to know is as exasperated about it as I expect you are right now, reading this. Her name is Jane and here is her phone number: 4422659803. I hope you two will make acquaintance in this life and hopefully lead a good and happy life together.

Best wishes,

Jennifer

“What did you mean you are resigned to your fate?” he asked her, after she had returned to the table.

“First things first, are you actually considering the proposal, because if so, then I guess you have the right to certain information but if not, I guess we can shake hands and say goodbye,” she answered back.

“I am not going to lie, I could do with coming into a bit of money at this point of time but believe me I don’t have any intention of imposing any decision on you. If the said proposal is not agreeable to you, I am ready to walk away without a fuss but if it is possible, I would not mind exploring if whatever this is, has any potential of blossoming into something which is beneficial not only on the financial side but in the larger aspect of life for the both of us,” was his lengthy reply.

“So, I guess you are considering it at some level?” she asked.

“I would say so, but like I said if there is anyone else in the picture then I am not walking in the middle of anything and disrupting it,” he said.

“There’s nothing like that but …” she stopped for a second and continued, “but if you do want to give it a serious thought, I think you should have all the relevant information presented to you. The thing is, even though you seem like a pretty decent guy, I am not even remotely interested in you and nor do I think, it is possible for me to be ever interested in you in the way you are talking about, that is, in the context of the bigger picture of life.”

“Well, that’s a little blunt but I guess honesty is the best way to go in this type of situation,” he replied with a weak smile, clearly taken aback by her candor.

“I don’t think you quite understand me, what I am trying to say is that, it is not about who you are as a person on an individual level but more about what you are ,which is the problem,” she continued trying to explain it best as she could without trying to delve into details.

“Hey, it’s alright; you don’t have to do damage control here ……,” was all he managed to get out before being cut off mid-sentence by her.

“You really don’t understand, it is not possible for me to like you in that sense because we like the same things, in fact, one exact, very specific thing,” she continued.

“Now I really don’t understand, what do you mean we like the exact same things and so we can’t build a relationship together; isn’t liking the same things a good foundation to build a relationship on?” he inquired, still unclear on what she was trying to say.

“One would think so, wouldn’t they? But in this case, I don’t think so; when I am saying we like the same thing, what I mean to say is that, we both like women and I like them in the same manner as you like them; I am gay,” she finished, blurting out the last part hurriedly.

“Oh! Okay, I see,” he acknowledged with not so subtle astonishment and they both gave in to a few moments of silence after her disclosure.

“So, then why did your mother set this up? Didn’t she know?” he asked her, after somewhat regaining his composure.

“I guess she had a vague idea, but I think she hoped it would be more of a phase I was going through and that I would come out of it sooner or later,” she replied.

“Oh, don’t worry; she was always very good to me and never gave me any grief with regards to about whom I could or couldn’t love, but she was a bit old-fashioned; I mean you can imagine, who sets up their daughter’s marriage with an unknown relative based on second hand information and in the belief of the family’s character she had once known,” she answered in question to his raised eyebrow.

He nodded his head in agreement.

“And I never felt the need to flaunt my lifestyle in front of her so…,” she finished.

“Hmm, okay; so what do you mean you are resigned to your fate and why did you say that whatever I decide, goes for the both of us?” he queried.

“That I meant,” was her short reply.

“Why? That is what I’m asking; I mean if we don’t get married, does that mess up your inheritance? Or else, why would you in any scenario, agree to marry me?” he asked her.

She answered, “Well, kind of; I will not get the best part of the money until about 15 years later but I don’t really care about that too much, if I’m being honest.”

“Then?” he continued to prod.

“Do you think we should get something to eat? I mean, we are going to be talking for quite a bit of time, right?” she suddenly asked, diverting the topic of discussion.

“Yeah, I guess so,” he answered.

As they returned to their table, both carrying trays overloaded with food, he asked her wryly, “So, I guess women don’t under-eat in front of potential spouses as popular culture would like us to believe, huh?”

“I wouldn’t think so; but then again, I don’t really care if I am creating any negative impression on you by eating as I normally would do, when on my own,” she replied with a smile.

 “True that; so, why the potential begrudging acceptance to a marriage you are most likely never to be happy in?” he asked her, getting back to what they were talking about before.

“It’s the case of once bitten, shy for the rest of my life,” she answered, munching on her food.

“Care to elaborate?” he inquired, a little confused.

“Had a relationship; thought it would be the one, didn’t turn out that way, kind of lost faith in the ‘bigger picture of life’ in that sense as you talked about and that’s all I want to get into about it right now,” she answered hurriedly.

He gave her an understanding nod.

Eager to move on, she asked him, “So, what about you?”

“What about me?” he responded, a little surprised.

“Well, were you interested just for the money or were you actually looking for something more substantial? Or more interestingly, are you deserting someone just for the sake of the money?” she finished with a grin at her last question.

“Not deserting anybody,” he said with a smile, “but the rest of your question, I’m not sure. Like I said, a little bit of money at this point of time would be welcome but I would be lying, if I said that there was not any wishful thinking on my part that there could be the chance of a real relationship being borne out of this, but then again that’s probably wishing too much for myself,” he finished, his face putting out a somewhat, defeated expression.

“Why?” she inquired.

“What, why?” he responded.

“Why wishing for too much? You also a member of the ‘once bitten, shy for the rest of my life’ club?” she asked him.

“Not really; it’s more of a never ‘bitten’ scenario, in my case,” he answered.

“Okay; so what do you need the money for?” she queried, sensing that he wanted to change the subject.

“Have a business, it’s taken a bit off a hit lately and so…” he replied.

“By the way, were there any other candidates for the groom or was I the ideal candidate because of my financial situation,” he asked her.

“No one else that I know of; and as far as I know, you were in consideration because of your family and not anything else,” she answered him.

Fidgeting with the food on his tray, he said, “It’s kind of weird though that she waited till she was at her death bed to put forth a proposition like this; I mean why not contact me when she was in good health?”

She gave a look of acknowledgement.

“You know just of curiosity, what if we get married and then get a divorce; do we get to keep the money?” he asked her.

“No; we have to stay married for at least five years to get all of it,” she answered him.

“So, why did you say never ‘bitten’? I mean, was it a conscious decision or was that the stars never lined up?” she asked him.

“I don’t know; my best friend says, it’s because I have a problem with liking myself and so it’s not possible for me to like someone else in a serious manner and vice-versa, but who knows?” he replied with an air of resignation.

“Hmm; I guess we, sad cases could be perfect for each other in a way, huh?” she said sarcastically.

“Yeah, you don’t believe in love anymore, I might just be incapable of love full stop; it’s clear we can tolerate each other and having a lot of money will only make it easier I would assume, so why not go for it? I mean, what’s the worst that could happen? We won’t be able to tolerate each other, or you may start believing in love again, or I could fall in love by some …..” he didn’t finish his sentence.

“I don’t think tolerating each other would be a big problem and me falling in love again, that is also very unlikely but you actually didn’t consider the worst case, did you?” she told him.

“What’s that?” he inquired.

“I mean, what if you fall for me? I mean, I quite like you and could possibly grow to love you but I could never be in love with you; then there remains the possibility of a situation where we end up hurting each other through no fault of our own,” she replied.

“How could I fall for you?” he asked her bewildered.

She started, “Let’s put all our cards on the table; you like the way I look and …”

“What do you mean?” he cut her off, pretending innocence.

“Spare me the act; like I said we both play for the same team and till now I have caught you getting lost while looking at me, atleast three times so…” she said matter-of-factly.

“Well, that’s not the point and anyway, when I know there is no chance of it leading to anything, there’s no chance of me falling for you,” he replied.

She just responded, “It’s never that simple, trust me” and looking into her eyes, he understood that she knew what she was talking about.

After a while, Dan said, “Well, you know what, that’s a risk I am willing to take and so, if you don’t have any big objection other than that, then I would like the opportunity to see if we could at least last the minimum of five years, that is, when we will be able to get all of the money.”

“Are you sure?” she asked him, a little tentative.

“Yeah; and like you said, if the worst case scenario comes to life, I am the one with most to lose,” he replied assertively.

“Okay! It seems like we are getting married then, and hopefully, coming into a whole lot of money five years down the line,” Jane exclaimed, her tone equal parts cheerful and sarcastic, as they clinked their glasses of water in mock celebration.