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He sighs heavily "India, why do you need me to say yes to that? Don't you believe me when I say I want only you? I don't want Heather or Cindy or anyone Marina wants to match me with"

He pulls ht noant you I can't promise it will be forever Don't ask me to"

I nod, because even I know neither of us can make such a promise

"I' away froht to meet oodbye"

Jon steps back and shakes his head slowly He runs his hand through his hair and I know he's angry at o to the stairs, but before I go down, I turn and meet his eyes

"You should say goodbye to your date, too It's the adult thing to do, Jon"

He doesn't say anything, just rubs his jaw thoughtfully

"Okay," he says and waves o ahead I'll come down in a moment"

I nod and take the stairs back to the living roo with both John and Cindy

"There you are," Marina says, and glances at John and Cindy "We thought you'd left"

"Why would you think that?"

"You've been upstairs," she says and raises her eyebrows, "for about fifteenup there?"

Jon comes down the stairs and then Marina sees him He stops in thetogether I can sense the hesitancy in him He doesn't want to have to face this, but he visibly steels himself and comes over, a smile pasted on his face

"There you are," he says and puts his hand on Cindy's arm "Care to have a little chat?"

She looks at Marina and then at me and John Marina pushes her "Go" Marina smiles widely and then looks back at me "I'll leave you two alone"