What he can’t understand is how love can become an ultimatum.

She’d pursued him but he’d been doubtful. She’d had to persuade him, and he was glad she did because he fell in love too. Now, just one year later, this.

“This isn’t enough. I want commitment. I want to get married.”

They are only 24. It seems irrational. Needlessly precipitate. They are young. They have money. Friends. Holidays. A good life with good prospects.

How can she love him enough to want to spend her life with him yet also be willing to cut him out of it forever?