Contemplation

"…But basically, I just told him where to go. I mean, how dare that idiot talk to me like that! Who does he think he is? Huh? Prince fucking Charming?"
Karen's ranting had gone on for so long that by the time the waiter came over to their table, Mark had begun to daydream – mainly about the waiter. He had heard it all before from his sister already; she broke with her fiancé roughly five or six months ago, recently got back together because they figured that they still had feelings for each other, and yet despite their new attempt at making their relationship work they were fighting already. If that was the first time that Karen and her boyfriend Liam were going through those kind of problems, then Mark could've been a bit more sympathetic, but Karen & Liam had been on and off together for the past three years. Being quite honest, Mark (along with the rest of Karen's friends and family) was getting a bit tired of hearing Karen's complaints of the dramatic situations that she was prone to putting herself into.

"Well," Karen said in an attempt to finish off her speech-like rant, "there's no way he's coming on holidays with me to Malaysia next month, no matter how many diamond rings he buys me! I mean who on Earth tries to propose marriage to get out of an argument? I was livid, Mark! Just livid!"
Finally, she sighs a takes in a deep breath. "So, what do you think? Is he even worth it?"

"Let's face it," Mark replied, "at the end of the day you just allow yourself to become involved with this guy over and over again, and you don't really give yourself a chance to really get him out of your life; how are you supposed to move on if you can't let him go?"
Mark's tone of voice was cold and harsh, but he was aware of the fact that Karen knew he had some element of truth in what he was saying.
"You made the decision to get back with him; so if things go wrong, depending on what goes wrong, you can only blame yourself for getting heartbroken again. I mean, fair enough, the way you see him is always gonna be different to how the rest of us see him, which is just as a major prick. Despite that, you're gonna have to think on whether or not you feel you could be truly happy with him for the rest of your life."

Mark's cold tone made his word all the more hard hitting to Karen, and for the first time in her day she calmed down completely and tried to think about what was really going on. There she was, she thought to herself, back with her old boyfriend for the fourth time, and as they had their first fight (again), Liam tries – in her opinion – to shut her up by proposing to her. She was so taken aback that where other women might have melted even at the idea of it, Liam's attempt at popping the question made her even more enraged but speechless. It was only because of what Mark was saying that she began to think about Liam in a different light. This was a guy, who admitted that he was willing to spend the rest of his life with her; surely she should've been delighted that a confession like that, no matter how unexpected or possibly unromantic he said it. They had been together for such a long time that he was the only person in the world that truly knew her, inside and out, and yet despite that, he still wanted to be with her.

She looked out to the sea from the café window that herself and her brother were in, and thought of what Liam had asked really meant, for the first time ever. They would soon be getting a place together, they'd soon want kids together (Liam definitely did, and the idea of it seemed plausible to Karen), and they could see the world together like Karen always wanted. Regardless of travel plans, she truly loved Liam, even though they'd be at each other's throats every second day.

"So," said Mark, "Do you know what you're doing at all?"

"I already have," replied Karen, as she took out her mobile to send a text to Liam;

'So, would you like to have the ceremony in Malaysia?'