Chapter 4 Chapter Four Marriage Proposal

Naturally, this short journey will not cause Valerie to leave her original partner. Two years of relationship cannot be defeated by a one-night conversation.Andrew watched her coming, knowing that if he rushed, she would not stay. Twenty days later, in the middle of the night, he suddenly received a text message that was exactly the same as the one he had received that Sunday night that had made him distraught.When his taxi arrived at the Pick Me Cafe, Valerie was waiting for him, a black scar on each side of her cheek and a suitcase at her feet. After returning home, Andrew put the suitcase into his room and arranged for Valerie to stay here.When he came back, she had already got into the quilt, and the light in the room was not turned on.Andrew sat beside her, kissed her, and stood up again.He thought that when a relationship just broke up, it was best to leave her alone to mourn slowly.He wished Valerie sweet dreams and asked her if she would like a cup of hot chocolate.Valerie nodded; Andrew walked out.

This night, Andrew lay on the sofa in the living room without sleep.He heard Valerie sobbing, and he wanted to go up to her and comfort her, but he held back; the only way to heal a wound like this was to be yourself. In the morning, Valerie found a breakfast tray with a bowl of chocolate powder and a note on the low table in the living room. Valerie promised Andrew that as soon as her ex-boyfriend moved out of her apartment, she would go back.If her friend Colette didn't live as far away as New Orleans, she could live with her too.Ten days later, while Andrew was feeling better and happier about her stay, Valerie was packing to move back to the East Village.Looking at Andrew's disappointed eyes, Valerie reassured him that they were only fifteen blocks away at most.

Summer is coming.When the summer heat in New York finally became unbearable on the weekend, they took the subway to Coney Island and spent a few hours at the beach. In September, Andrew left the United States for ten days, and he refused to tell Valerie one iota of information about his trip.He just said it was a professional secret and swore to Valerie that she had no reason to suspect him. In October, when Andrew left again, in order to get Valerie's forgiveness, he promised her that he would accompany her on vacation whenever he could.But Valerie didn't like verbal reassurance, and she replied that she might as well spend her vacation flying to see him.

At the end of autumn, the accumulation of Andrew's previous efforts finally paid off.Weeks of research, and two trips to Asia to collect first-hand information, enabled him to uncover the inside story of a case of child trafficking.His article appeared in the Sunday edition—the most-read section of the week—and it got a lot of buzz. Over the past decade, 65,000 babies have been adopted by American families.The scandal involved hundreds of babies who had not been abandoned by their original parents, whose official certificates at the time were not counted, and who had been forcibly taken from their birth parents and given up for adoption in an orphanage.For an adoption, the orphanage will get $5,000 in benefits.This ill-gotten wealth has led some corrupt police and government officials to take risks, and they have made it easy for them to profit from it.The government quickly stopped such incidents from continuing, but crimes were committed.Andrew surveyed many American parents how they would morally deal with such a tragic ending.

Andrew's name quickly spread throughout the writing group and began to appear in the evening news broadcasts, which often selected topics for discussion from New York Times columns. Andrew's colleagues congratulated him on his success.He received e-mails from his director of writing and letters from readers who were shocked by his research.But he also began to be envied by some of his colleagues, and three anonymous threatening letters appeared in the newspaper, although this kind of thing is not uncommon. He spent the New Year's Day holiday alone.Valerie leaves New York to join Colette in New Orleans.

On the second day after Valerie left, Andrew was almost hit by a baseball bat in the parking lot. Fortunately, the maintenance personnel who had an appointment with him arrived in time to prevent the situation from worsening. Simon leaves for a year-end dinner in Beaver Bay, Colorado, with his group of skiing friends. Andrew had never taken Christmas and New Years seriously; he hated all festive evenings in which people had to entertain at all costs.On both evenings he spent long evenings alone at the bar at Mary's Cooking Fish, over a plate of oysters and glasses of dry white wine. 2012 starts off with some good auspicious signs.Except for a minor accident in early January.Andrew was hit by a car coming out of the Charles Street Police Station.The driver of the vehicle is a retired police officer. He took the opportunity of this business trip to New York to visit friends at his original workplace.He was also taken aback when he saw Andrew fall to the ground. Fortunately, Andrew stood up again without any injuries, and he was relieved.He insisted on inviting Andrew to dinner at his proposed bistro.Andrew had nothing to do that night, a good steak was obviously more attractive than a police station interview, and a reporter would never turn down a chance to eat with a smooth-talking veteran New York cop.The old policeman told him about his life and told some of the best stories of his career.

Valerie has kept her own apartment, which Andrew calls her "parachute," but since February, she has started living with Andrew every night.They began to seriously consider changing to a larger place that could accommodate two people.The only obstacle was that Andrew didn't want to leave the West Village, where he had sworn to live until his last day.Finding a three-bedroom place in a neighborhood made up mostly of small houses was not easy.Valerie tried to talk him out of him like a big kid, but it didn't work, she knew she couldn't get him to move out of this unusual neighborhood where Andrew knew every detail by heart.He recounted these stories whenever he and Valerie walked through a corner of Greenwich Street, where there used to be a restaurant from which Hope's famous painting Nightcrawlers came from. Inspiration was there, or when they walked past the window of a house he'd say John Lennon lived in before he moved into the Dakota building.The West Village has seen all the cultural revolutions and is home to the most famous cafes, bistros and nightclubs.When Valerie explained to Andrew that most of the artists had now moved to Williamsburg, Andrew looked at her very seriously and said:

"Dylan, Hendricks, Streisand, Pete, Paul and Mary, Simon and Garfunkel, Joan Baez, they all started their careers in the West Village, where I live Isn't that a good enough reason for us to live here in the bars of the neighborhood?" Valerie, unwilling to contradict him for such a trifle, replied: "Who says it's not!" But when she complimented Andrew on the convenience of housing just a few blocks away, Andrew replied that he would never live in a place that looked like a steel parrot cage.He wanted to hear the sounds of the street, sirens, taxi horns at intersections, the creak of old wooden floors, the sound of various pipes as the building's boilers started to work, and the creaking of the entrance gates. , the noises made him aware that he was alive and that other people lived around him.

One afternoon, he left the newspaper office and returned to his home, emptied the cabinets, and moved most of his personal belongings to a storage room at home.Then he opened the closet where the clothes were hung, and announced to Valerie that there was no longer any need to move, that she now had enough room for her own things, that she could really settle down here. In March, Andrew was assigned by the director of the writing department to carry out a new investigation that took over the previous investigation.An important document he had been waiting for brought his attention to Latin America.

In early May, Andrew returned from Buenos Aires.He knew he couldn't stay long this time and would have to go back to work soon.He couldn't think of any other way to get Valerie to forgive himself than to tell Valerie at dinner time that he wanted to marry her. Valerie looked at Andrew seriously, then laughed.Valerie’s smile disturbed Andrew’s heart.He looked at Valerie and realized with sudden bewilderment that he, too, had been delighted by this half-thought-out proposal. "You're not serious, are you?" Valerie asked, wiping tears from the corners of her eyes. "Why can't I be serious?"

"Well, Andrew, we've only been together a few months. Maybe it's too hasty to make such a decision." "We've been together for a year, and we've known each other since we were teenagers, don't you think we've always been together?" "But there was a little break of twenty years..." "For me, since we met as teenagers, then lost touch, and then met by chance on a sidewalk in New York, that's a good sign." "You, as such a rational reporter, a true believer in Cartesianism, do you now believe in such things as omens?" "When I saw you walking towards me, yes!" Valerie looked Andrew straight in the eyes, silent, then smiled at him. "Propose to me again." This time it was Andrew's turn to observe Valerie.She was no longer the rebellious young girl he had known twenty years earlier.Valerie, who was sitting across from him and having dinner with him, had long since replaced her ragged jeans with suitable dresses, her messy nail polish and basketball shoes had been replaced by lacquered pumps, the unchanging burlap Outerwear completely concealed her figure, and now a plunging cashmere sweater with a deep V-neck perfectly framed the curve of her chest.Her eye makeup is no longer exaggerated, just a light layer of eye shadow and a light brush of mascara.Valerie Lancer was far from the most beautiful woman he had ever met, but he had never felt so close to anyone. Andrew felt that his palms were sweating, which had never happened to him before.He pushed back the chair, walked around to the other side of the table, and got down on one knee. "Valerie Lancer, I don't have a ring on me. Although the idea of ​​this proposal is sudden, please believe in my sincerity. If you want to be my wife, we can choose one together this weekend, I Try to be the best husband you can be, so that you never take off this ring. Or while I am alive, if you decide to remarry after I die." "Even when you're proposing, you can't help but tell such cold jokes!" "I assure you, in this position, with so many people looking at me, I'm not kidding at all." "Andrew," Valerie leaned over and whispered in his ear, "I really want to tell you I agree, because I really want to marry you, and also to avoid having you continue to look like someone in front of so many people. Kneeling like an idiot, but when you get back to your seat in a moment, I'll tell you the only thing I ask of our marriage. So I say 'I do' out loud for a moment in the following It's conditional for a few minutes, okay?" "We've made a deal." This time it was Andrew's turn to speak softly. Valerie kissed Andrew lightly on the lips before saying "I do" straight away.In the lobby of the restaurant, applause erupted from the breath-holding patrons. The owner of the small restaurant came out from behind the bar to congratulate his loyal customers.He put his arms around Andrew, hugged him tightly, and whispered in his ear in the Italian-New York accent that often appears in Martin Scorsese movies: "I hope you know what you just did !" He bowed again to Valerie and kissed her hand. "Now, I can call you Madame! I'm going to pop a bottle of champagne for you, my treat. Yes, yes, please don't say no!" Mauricio returned to the bar and motioned to his only waiter to carry out the order at once. "Now please speak, I'm listening." The champagne bottle was uncorked, and Andrew said softly. The waiter filled their glasses, and Mauricio also came over with a glass in his hand. He wanted to toast the future couple. "Give us a few more minutes, Mauricio," Andrew said, grabbing the boss's arm. "You want me to state my request in front of him?" Valerie asked in surprise. "This is an old friend. I have never kept secrets from my old friends." Andrew replied jokingly. "Very well! Well then, Mr. Steelman, if you can swear that you will never lie to me, cheat me, or make me miserable on purpose, I will marry you. If one day you don't Love me, I wish I was the first to know it. I've had enough of relationships ending in sad nights. If you can say yes to these demands, then I'd love to be your wife." "I swear to you, Valerie Lancer Steelman." "Swear on your life?" "Swear on my life!" "If you betray me, then I will kill you!" Mauricio looked at Andrew and crossed himself. "Shall we toast now?" the restaurateur asked. "I have other guests to say hello to." He then served them two homemade tiramisu and insisted on giving them a free order. Andrew and Valerie walked home along the streets of the West Village. "Are we really going to get married?" Valerie asked, grabbing Andrew's hand. "Yes, really. To be honest, I didn't even think that proposing to you would give me such a strong sense of happiness." "Me too," Valerie replied, "that's weird. I should call Colette and tell her the news. We met at school and we shared all kinds of troubles and happiness, especially the troubled things. .I think she will be my bridesmaid at my wedding.And you, who would you choose?" "Simon, I think." "You don't want to call him?" "Of course, I'll call him tomorrow." "Call him tonight, tonight, when I call Colette!" Andrew had no intention of bothering Simon at that late hour just to tell him something that would not be too late tomorrow, but he saw a childlike begging look in Valerie's eyes, a mixture of The sudden look of joy and fear struck him. "Do we each call our own friend, or do we wake up our best friend together?" "You're right, we should get used to doing a lot of things together," Valerie replied. Colette promised Valerie to meet her in New York as soon as possible.She congratulated Andrew and told him that he was far from realizing the luck that life had given him.Her best friend is an incomparable woman. Simon, for his part, thought it was a practical joke at first.He asked to speak to Valerie.Andrew concealed his displeasure. When Simon first congratulated Valerie, especially because Simon hadn't discussed with him, he decided to ask them to have dinner together the next day. "I just wanted to tell him myself." Andrew explained his displeasure to Valerie. "But that's what you just did." "No, he doesn't believe me, you told him he did. But it's my best friend anyway, damn it!" "But you know, I didn't do anything." Valerie slowly moved her face closer to Andrew. "Yeah, you didn't do anything, but right now, you're biting my lip." "I know." They tossed and turned all night long, and between the two tender moments, they used the remote control placed by the bed to turn on the TV to watch old black and white TV series.The next morning, they walked across the city and sat on a bench by the East River to watch the sunrise. "You must always remember this night," Andrew murmured to Valerie.