STORY: Legal Martinis (500 word Challange)

The 500 word challange is just that: create a complete short story in 500 words; this is not exactly my specialty, but I've given it a shot. How well or poorly I've done the reader can decide.


Legal Martinis

The boy had been thinking of proposing since graduation. Dinner seemed as good a time as any.

"Listen," he said, when they were finally seated, "do you think you'd want to marry me?"
"No."
"No?"
"No."

The waiter appeared, took their order for martinis and placed a tasseled menu to the left of each plate.

"Isn't it wonderful to finally be able to order a real drink?"
"Why won't you marry me?" the boy asked.
"We have college yet."
"We could become engaged, at least."
"I'm already engaged."
"Oh."
"Sorry."
"Sorry to disappoint me, but not sorry you're engaged?"
"That's about it."
"How come I didn't know anything about it?"
The girl only shrugged.

"So who is he anyway?" the boy asked.
The girl opened her menu and began to scout the entrees.
"Just someone."
"Someone has a name, doesn't he? What's his name?"
"Tom Wilson. He lives on Long Island."
"Where'd you meet him? He didn't go to Watchung Hills?"
"I just told you he's from Long Island. Why would he go to Watchung Hills?"
"Where'd you meet him then?"
The girl made a vague motion with her hand. "My father does business with his father. We were invited to their home one Sunday for dinner."
"And now you're engaged---just like that?"
"Not 'just like that.' We've been seeing each other the last year or so."
"And where was I when all this was going on? How come I know nothing about it?"
The girl shrugged.
"And you are really going to marry this guy? For real?"
"Yes. For real."

The waiter brought their martinis and took their order for dinner. The girl took a sip of her drink and from her expression seemed to like it fine.
"Just think," she said, "to be able to order a real drink anytime we want."
"So I guess I'm pretty much out of the picture then?"
"Except as a friend," the girl said, not without kindness.

After a while the boy asked,
Does he even know anything about you?"
"Can we stop now?"
"I mean what does he really even know about you?"
"I suppose you think because we've lived next door to each other for eighteen years you have some kind of deep insight into my soul or something?"
"Does he know how you used to swipe eggs from the kitchen and hide them behind the furnace because you were certain they'd hatch into chicks?"
"When I was three," the girl said.
"Or about the poetry you used to---"
"Have you tried your martini?" the girl asked. "It's really quite good." She took a long slim cigarette from her bag and held it between her fingers.
"There's no smoking here."
"I'm not smoking it."

"You don't even sound like yourself anymore---'the martini is quite good'"---he mimicked.
The girl stared vacantly across the room. "Will you ever grow up?" she asked.
The boy looked away and took a sip of his drink.