Lust Contracts

“He is a nice person,” I replied flatly.

They were all nice. They were nice to me just like I had to be nice to them. Superficially nice.

Just like I never showed my true self to them, I suspected that none of them ever showed their true self to me. I wasn’t sure how my parents expected me to consider marriage to any of these men when we both didn’t know anything about the other. Of course, I kept all these thoughts locked away in my own mind without ever voicing them.

Getting married right away after graduating from high school wasn’t what I wanted. Although the other girls in my class viewed it as the highest form of achievement to get engaged right after graduation, I had other plans for myself. I had been thinking about this for a while now and after almost a year of thinking, I have finally found a way to convince my parents to send me to university.

Unlike the popular majors that other girls were aiming for such as the arts or design, I wanted to study business. It was still a faraway dream, but I had hoped that one day I could start a small business of my own. I felt like I had a genuine interest in business and that if I worked hard at it, I could achieve something for myself through my efforts. Selling that story to my parents wasn’t going to work though.

“My friends got engaged recently and her suitors honestly weren’t that great. Her fiancé isn’t even that rich or famous. He’s also much older and I don’t think that he’s taking her seriously,” I started complaining to my mother.

Little by little, I would complain to her about the guys that my friends were seeing and their fiancés. Most of my stories were true while some I admittingly spiced it up a bit to get my mother’s attention. Unfortunately, unlike my friends, I did not enjoy the attention that I was getting from my suitors.

Thankfully, all the men were respectful in their approaches; however, I wasn’t interested in forming any type of relationship with them.

“Really? Why is that? Your friends are from your school, right?” my mother asked with concern.

don’t know. Maybe it’s just too soon for them to get engaged. Won’t they meet better guys if

father walked in suddenly at that moment and sat down on the sofa as if he wanted to join in in our conversation. My eyes widened a little at his unusual behavior. My mother had the same reaction as me because it wasn’t often that he would join

before we find her a suitable husband,” my father stated

after he had spoken. Finally, he’s seeing things the way

would just delay her wedding…” my mother asked

the main point, exactly. I didn’t want to get married

a top university. She’ll likely meet some other potential marriage candidates during her time

me to university is if they believed that I would be

would

ideas. Everything was up

get into a good university then you’ll get married to whoever I deem suitable right after your graduation,” my father said without so much as looking my way.

university major?” I asked

asked

gulped nervously and I

want to study

she was expecting me to choose