The Carousel

"So, Jared."

"Yes, sir?" Jared answered Owen, finding the need to be formal all of a sudden.

"I know your intentions with my daughter are pure and sincere, correct?"

"Yes, sir," he answered as he took a hold of Ondine's hand under the table.

"Is that all you know how to say? 'Yes, sir'?" Owen looked at Jared seriously.

"Yes, sir."

Ondine couldn't help but to giggle lightly. "I'm sorry, babe," she said to her very anxious boyfriend.

Jared squeezed his girlfriend's hand tightly and smiled at her. He didn't know why he felt so nervous. Ondine had been right, this wasn't the first time he was meeting her parents, but it seemed like Owen was not kidding around when he said he was going to get grilled. Ondine fixed their hands so that their fingers intertwined.

"Dad, please go easy on Jared."

"We just don't want you to get hurt."

"I don't have any intentions of doing that, sir," Jared said to the older man.

"Besides, dad, even if I get hurt, it was my choice to get in a relationship with Jay. Isn't that what happens, dad? There are just some things we can't control. Sometimes couples fight. Sometimes they go through trials. It's just something that hopefully will make us stronger."

"But having said that, that doesn't mean that I want to ever hurt her intentionally," Jared explained quickly, remembering the pregnancy scare that rocked their worlds a few months ago.

"Jared, Ames is our one and only princess, and I..."

"Sweetie, that's enough," Ava chided him playfully. "You're not gonna win any best actor awards here."

"Oh, I'm not acting, Sweetie," Owen replied to his wife.

"Daddy," Ondine said in her sweetest voice. "I love Jay. He loves me. It's too early in our relationship to talk about pure and sincere intentions. We aren't getting engaged anytime soon."

"But I do hope we get to that point someday," Jared blurted out, looking directly into his girlfriend's eyes.

Owen and Ava exchanged knowing looks. They took a look at the young couple in front of them who both became silent. Ondine looked at Jared with knitted eyebrows, and Jared just brought her hand that he was holding up to his lips and gave it a kiss.

"That's what I like to hear, but I don't want the two of you to make any rash decisions," Owen broke the trance that took over the young couple.

"Sweetie, if I recall correctly, you didn't wait very long until you proposed to me," Ava smirked at her husband.

"We were so much more mature," Owen reasoned.

"Really?" Ava chuckled.

"We weren't 22, for one thing."

Ava and Owen continued talking, not realizing that their daughter and her boyfriend were no longer paying attention to them. Ondine and Jared were lost in their own little world, staring into each other's eyes. Jared was the first to break the trance and gave his girfriend a kiss on the forehead. They stayed in that position, the pair of them with their eyes closed.

"And we lost them," Ava chuckled. "I think she's in good hands, don't you think, sweetie?" she turned to her husband.

"I hope so, for his sake," Owen motioned at Jared.

Ava laughed and just gave her husband a kiss on the cheek.

***

"Well, that wasn't so bad," Ondine leaned her head on her boyfriend's shoulder as he drove them to his house.