I gestured with my head to the soup in front of him. “I grew up on Campbell’s. When my mother could afford it, she would buy cans and cans of it. Only on a handful of occasions did we ever have enough for grilled cheese and soup, but I loved it when we did. Today, I can afford the soup and grilled cheese. I just get better quality cheese. I hated that rubbery American cheese the government sponsored programs would always give us.” I made a disgusted face.
“It reminds you of home.”
I looked out of the window. “A little, I guess.” I’d never really even thought of it but it was true.
“You don’t have to feel guilty for making it out of poverty.”
I turned sharply to Robert, eyebrows furrowed. But he wasn’t put off by my reaction to his statement.
“It’s true. There’s nothing to feel guilty about. Your parents worked and even died to give you a better life. You owe it to them to live it.”
I placed my half a sandwich back down on my plate. I’d never revealed those feelings to anyone.
“I know that,” I stated, my voice low. “But it feels odd or like I’m betraying them sometimes. I still haven’t gone back home since I left. I’ve never been to the place where my mother is buried. I make in a month what my mother used to make in a year. Just saying that out loud almost takes my breath away. I sit in meetings with the CFO of our company and sometimes think, how did I get here?”
“It’s where you were meant to be.”
I swallowed, picking up my sandwich again and taking another bite. I didn’t feel the need to fill the silence. Somehow, Robert just got me and that made it so much easier for me to relax. To not have to pretend to be one way or another. And while he was overbearing at some moments, at others, he gave me the space and freedom to be exactly whoever it was I needed to be.
“I have to head out of town tomorrow for an overnight work trip to New York. I’ll be back Thursday evening. We’ll have dinner,” he stated, standing by the door. It was nearly ten o’clock at night, and while I didn’t want him to go, I couldn’t let him stay. Not like this. Not while I still had to deal with Cohen.
I nodded. “It’s a date.”
A smile touched his lips and he advanced on me, taking my lips in a sizzling kiss. Again his hands rose to cup my face. “Remind me again why I can’t have you tonight.”
Sighing, I wrapped my hands around his wrists. “Because it wouldn’t be right.”
A muscle in his jaw twitched. “I respect your loyalty. It makes me love you even more … but I loathe that your loyalty is to him.”
“It’s not to him. It’s to us. We can’t start our relationship off being deceitful.”
Robert’s response was quick. “Our relationship started over five years ago, so technically speaking, youarebeing disloyal to us.”
I pulled back, grinning. “Like you haven’t been with any other women in the past five years.”
For the first time ever, I saw Robert’s eyes shuttered and evade mine. “Point made,” he finally responded.
“Dinner. Thursday. I’ll pick you up.”
I nodded, knowing what he was leaving unsaid: breakup with Cohen by the time he got back from his business trip.
****
Present
Kayla
“And did you? Break up with him?” I questioned as I walked my mother-in-law to the front door. She’d stopped by and had lunch with my mother and I while Josh had to go into the office for a few hours. My mother had left about thirty minutes ago, and I’d damn near begged Deborah to share more of her and Robert’s story with me.
Deborah looked down at my daughter, Victoria, bouncing her on her hip, and replied, “I sure did.”
We both laughed.
“Cohen was no match for Robert.”
She shook her head. “None at all. But, surprisingly, it would take him a little while to learn that lesson.”
I lifted an eyebrow. “Oh, what happened?” I squealed, wanting to hear the rest of this story.
