“You are incorrigible, oh my god!”
I grab the bottle for a sip. “Lana, I’m just…trying to make light of the situation.”
“Don’t do that then,” she rasps quietly. Frowning. “Can’t you just fight with me?”
I twist the cap back on and set the bottle down to rake my fingers through my wet hair. “Youwantme to fight with you?”
“Yes.” She crosses her arms, nose in the air.
“Why, Lana? I don’t want to fight.”
“We should,” she says. “It’s healthy. Couples fight.”
I force an amused smirk. “So we’re a couple?”
“God, you’re so annoying!” Lana groans loudly, throwing her hands up and then curling them into fists as she turns away from me. “I don’t know who you are, Christian.Thatis the point—Thatis why I want to fight. You have all this money, all this privilege all of a sudden and I don’t recognize you in that car and in those stupid suits. Whoare you, Christian?”
“I’mme.” My voice cracks.
She shakes her head. “You have a four hundred thousand dollar car.”
“I’ll sell it. I’ll get us a more realistic car. A family car for when?—”
Lana scoffs. “Afamily car?”
“Yes,” I say, she should obviously know why—I’ve been thinking about it since before I got here. “We aregoing to have a family,Lana.”
She cocks her hips, her brows pinching, and her light brown eyes have rage swirling around in them—I can see iteven in the moonlight coming in through the back doors. “A family?”
“Yes, Lana. You and I are going to have a family. Three kids, maybe. Two if we get lucky with twins like we always said because it’s a two for one special.” I chuckle. Those were her exact words. “You don’t remember saying that?”
She huffs and rolls her eyes, her arms dropping to her sides and flying around. She spins, reacting and thinking until she leans against the back of the couch. “Why are you thinking about that right now?”
“Because of the car. I know it isn’t realistic for car seats,” I tell her. “We need better airbags and one of those cars that detect collisions and?—”
“Are you hearing yourself right now? You’re thinking about our kids and we haven’t even figured ourselves out! You just got back a month ago and you’re talking about our kids, Christian! What if… What if…” She swallows, her face contorting uncomfortably. “What if… What if we don’t work now? What if it isn’t us in the end? What if you go one way and I go the other?” Her voice cracks. “What if it isn’t you and me?”
I shake my head, eyes burning. Heart breaking. “It’s not happening that way.”
“You don’t know that, though. What if… God, what if… you find someone else? What ifI?—”
“Don’t you dare finish that sentence, Lana,” I growl through gritted teeth. “That isn’t happening. It’syouandme.Noneof that is going to happen. You’re mine and I’m yours, you know that.
“Except I don’t,” she croaks. “You left once.”
“And I’m here,” I say, taking small steps toward her. “Andweare going to get a family car, fill it up with car seats and kidvomit and it’ll smell like shit from their diapers and maybe have some dog hair?—”
“Do you even know how to pick up dog shit?”
My face pinches, confused. “I don’t have a dog but?—”
“That wasn’t the point!”
“Then why ask that question!”
“Because you left me!” she shouts, and the room is filled with her pained, heavy breathing.
“Lana—”
