"Well, not texting me, for starters."
"And I apologize for that, and that'smybad. I'm gonna have to work on that. I didn't do it on purpose to upset you. Youmustknow that. I love you, and thelastthing I wanna do is hurt you."
He rubs his hands across his face, placing them back on his lap.
"I havesomuch on my mind and that shouldn't be an excuse. But baby, you can call me too, you know?" he adds.
I just look at him.
"I know, I know… but youcancall me. If you're really that worried about me or you think something is going on, please feel free to shoot me a text," Lincoln continues.
"I do, and you never answer them," I remind him.
"Whenever I get your text, it's usually, like, an hour after I come out of work," he explains.
"But I showed you the time stamps. I sent them way before," I argue.
"Maybe it's the signal in the building or something. I'm so sorry. I'll try to do better. But can you meet me halfway?" he asks, his voice so deep and soothing that it actually makes me feel bad for even broaching this.
"I'd love to do that. I don't want us to grow out of love with each other, baby. Iloveyou. And I don't want to be one of those insecure wives that believes that, well…" I pause for a second, not wanting to give him any ideas. "I don't know. I just start going down this weird road."
"What road?"
"If I'm being honest, the whole cheating thing. I've heard so many stories," I admit.
"I'm not cheating on you, baby. I don't even think I could get away with it. Even if I decided to. I'm really bad at lying. And I'm so busy, I wouldn't even know when I got any time to do so. Maybe other people would tell me I had an opportunity to do it. But I wouldn't know. I wouldn't be aware of it because I'msodamn tired every day I can hardly focus on anything. Sometimes…" He takes a pause and smiles at me tiredly. "I forget to even use the bathroom. Do you know how many times a day I use the bathroom on average?"
"How many?" I ask.
"Once, if at all."
"That's not good," I tell him.
"I know," he murmurs.
I now feel really bad for him.
"Please promise me something, baby," I ask softly.
"What?"
I hold his hand in mine, moving myself a little bit to face him to my right.
"If you start drifting away from me or you start feeling unhappy in our relationship,pleasedon't string me along…please. I want us to be able to talk about things."
"Of course, baby, of course we will," he assures me.
"Do you still love me?" I ask.
"Of course, I still love you. You're thebestthing about my day. And even though it doesn'tseemlike it because I'm coming home exhausted, you don't know how happy it makes me to come home to you."
His words light a fire in my heart like I never knew I needed. I reach over and I hug him and kiss him. I kiss him until our kisses become a little more slow.
"I love you," I whisper.
"I love you too, baby," Lincoln replies.
I climb on top of him, straddling him, kissing him deeply. I could feel him getting hard, but it doesn't stay.
