1. Weird Offer

The cellphone, which he had ignored for 2 hours ago, suddenly vibrated, indicating that there was an incoming message. Glancing briefly, Diaz's brow furrowed seeing the name on his cell phone screen. Familiar indeed, but the name had not shown existence in his life for a long time. It was long enough for Diaz himself to be surprised that the person still remembered him. Times have changed, it's easy to make friends with a social media account, and anyone can get in touch with people from their past, maybe... this is one of the things that happened to Diaz. And the man was quite surprised because this woman suddenly contacted him. Even though as he recalled, even when they were still in touch in the same school environment, it could be said that they weren't close enough to exchange news these days. Then why?

Dismissing all preconceived notions that went too far, Diaz reached for his cell phone and opened the notification listed to read the contents of the short message.

From : Claire

Diaz

Only the call was listed, and no other messages even though Diaz waited a few seconds to see if there would be any additional sentences he might receive besides the one letter of the call. His attention which was originally only glancing is now fully diverted to his cellphone, grabs the cellphone in his hand, and leaves the file he is studying completely behind.

The 29-year-old man tapped the surface of his desk with his free fingers. Considering what kind of answer he should give his old friend.

From : Diaz

Hey

Surprise

It's been a long time since we haven't contacted

Where do you contact me from?

It didn't take long, the answer Diaz received was even faster than the reply the man gave earlier.

From : Claire

On the group line, there is a high school group

I see the contact there

Diaz subconsciously scratched the back of his head which didn't itch. Thinking for a moment to agree with Claire's truthful words—no, Diaz's small talk was too stupid.

From : Diaz

Oh yeah, haha

By the way, what's going on?

Want to give an invitation?

Well, that's usually the case, right? Old friends call whether it's just to break the happy news or give a wedding invitation and such.

From : Claire

No

I want to ask something

You have to answer correctly

And don't tell anyone

Talk to people about this, you die

Diaz's position, which was originally leaning on his work chair, has now turned upright. His gaze shifted to the work cubicles, some of which were still filled by his coworkers. Actually, work hours had ended about thirty minutes ago, but because there were some things Diaz had to take care of so he stayed there to finish them.

All right, back to Claire, why is this woman sending him such a scary message? Is he now in the profession of a psychic who can know his movements? To make sure if Diaz told anything related to their conversation now then Claire would make sure Diaz died.

From : Diaz

Wait, wait...

How scary?

From : Claire

Just answer

Do you have a girlfriend?

Diaz's brow furrowed. He was increasingly unable to guess where this conversation was going. Even so, Diaz still answered his middle school friend's question, for some reason. He had completely forgotten about the work he was examining earlier.

From : Diaz

I don't have

Why?

From : Claire

What kind of woman do you like? What kind of woman do you want? Are there any certain criteria?

From : Diaz

I really don't understand, Claire...

What is it?

The next answer was not as fast as he got before. It took more than 5 minutes for Diaz's phone to ring again. Even though the man had put down his cell phone and intended to get up from his chair to make coffee so he wouldn't fall asleep. The glass that was originally perched on the table was already in his hand when the vibration disturbed him and a pop-up message appeared on his cellphone screen.

From : Claire

Marry me

DUG!

"Ouch!" Diaz bent down, clutching her leg which had just hit the glass that had fallen from his grip. Unfortunately at that time, Diaz was not wearing shoes, but office sandals which he usually wears when he is tired of loafers. And the impact of the thick ceramic mug hurt him a lot.

"What’s wrong?"

Edwin, one of his co-workers looked into Diaz's cubicle and winced to find the man grimacing while holding his leg. Diaz only responded by shaking his head and waving one hand. Signaling that his office mates don't have to pay attention to him. Receiving that response Edwin shrugged, returning his attention to his computer screen.

Diaz sat back in his chair still with a small sob that came out, the man tried to neutralize the pain first before re-engaging the conversation through the short message with Claire. Taking a deep breath, Diaz reached for his phone again, opening the message from Claire.

This woman, what was she thinking?

From : Diaz

What do you mean?

From : Claire

Marry me

Do you want it or not?

A disbelieving laugh escaped Diaz's mouth which again caught Edwin's attention, who was distracted from his study. The man looked back and made sure his coworker was okay. "Are you okay? A while ago you were wincing in pain. Now you're grinning, even laughing weirdly."

Diaz chuckled, asking Edwin to ignore him again. Edwin shook his head in surprise, deciding not to interfere after his offer of concern was flatly rejected.

From : Diaz

Are you kidding?

Is this a prank?

From : Claire

No, I'm serious

From : Diaz

Claire, what are you doing?

You just contacted me, and then suddenly asked this

From : Claire

Just answer

If you don't, then I'll assume you're refusing

A rough gasp came out along with the message he received. For some reason, Diaz got carried away by responding to Claire's intentions that were still floating in his head. Diaz really couldn't guess what was going through the head of the woman he used to know who wasn't this sarcastic.

From : Diaz

I won't refuse

From : Claire

Ok, you mean to accept?

Take a deep breath, then exhale slowly, who knows how many times he's done it in the last five minutes? Suppose Diaz is controlling his emotions for someone who suddenly contacts him and makes him have to explain at length things that he doesn't understand why he should be involved in it.

Hey, this is their first chat after so many years of not being involved in any form of communication and even a relationship that can be considered special has never stopped at all. Even now, when he was still a classmate, as far as he recalled, Claire avoided him more than being said to be "close".

From : Diaz

It's not like that

Marriage is not a matter of whether you want it or not

It's not something this easy to say

From: Claire

If it can be easy, why make it difficult?

From : Diaz

Claire

It's a matter of commitment

And I've failed with this commitment before

A minute passed Diaz did not get the reply he had been waiting for. Five minutes passed and the reply never came. Until Diaz assumed that Claire might just be bored with her current life somehow. And getting an answer like that from Diaz made her so self-conscious that she didn't intend to reply to anything else. Diaz decided to think with that assumption, without knowing that the unexpected was waiting for him right in front of his eyes.