“Stop calling me that! We’renotmarried and I’m not your baby.”
“I’m sorry, you’re right… I’m… I don’t have a problem with you working there.”
“Really? Kinda feels like you do.” Gabby jerks her head in my direction, her eyes narrowing.
“It’s just that it’s a brutal job, and you gave me hell about working there, and now you actually want to work there for that guy? And then what would you do there? I know how I feel when I come home—”
“I’m a grown ass woman and if I want to take a job, I cantakea job.”
“Of course I’m not saying tha—”
“There were plenty of decisions you made that you did not takemeinto considerationwhatsoeverwhen we were married, so I don’t know why the hell you think I would take any considerations fromyoubeing that we’renotmarried. And don’t tell me that you won’t have anybody to watch Morris because you can still pay me, because I’ll still be watching him, ’cause I’ll still have him with me, and I can make the extra money from that job. Is there a problem?” she challenges.
“If you’re working there, why would I pay you?”
“Because I’m still watching your cat! Holy shit, Link, keep up.”
“Okay, don’t talk to me like that.” I can feel myself getting angry because it’s like she’s trying to pick a fight with me.
Probably the wrong thing to say, but I can’t help it.
Gabby puts her hands on her hips. “Oh, I’m sorry,” she says, sarcasm dripping from her voice. “I shouldn’t talk to you like that? Really?”
“Gabrielle, why are we fighting on Christmas Eve?”
“You’re the one who’s choosing to fight! It’s really not that serious.”
“I was asking you a damn question!” I feel myself yelling.
“No! You were trying to control me by implying I shouldn’t take the job. I’m not stupid, Lincoln, I’d been with you long enough, so don’t act like you weren’t doing something you were doing.”
“All I’m saying is it’s not the best environment, and you probably won’t be happy there, and you said shit about that company plenty of—”
“So let me make my own decision. You’re making bank off of it, why can’tI? Unless there’s something else you don’t want me to see. But I don’t see why that would matter because we’re… not…married. I alreadyknowyou’re fucking Sarah, so it’s not like it’s a secret.”
A big part of me wants to tell her, to be honest that I slept with Sarah last night, just to challenge her, just to see if she actuallycares. There are times when Gabrielle acts like she cares… and then she doesn’t.
I remember how she took care of me and saved my life. But would she have done that with anyone?
Sarah probably would have done that too.
But deep down, in the subconscious, I know Gabrielle still cares for me. If we end up working closer together, it’ll complicate everything. I won’t be able to concentrate at work. And what the hell would she be doing there? She isn’t trained for any of it.
The last thing I want is for her to also be strained in a job she doesn’t like. And Tobias would probably work her as hard as everyone else, maybe even harder just to get back at me.
That’s one of my worries.
“I’m sorry,” I say.
The easy-going backdrop of Christmas music seems in direct contrast to the tension between us.
“You have every right to do what you want to do and work where you want to work, and I think it’s very generous of you to even offer to take care of Morris despite all of that. You don’t have to.”
The tension seems to ebb in the silence permeating the room. Then she breaks it.
“I meant it. He’s basically my cat now,” she gives me a small smirk.
I smirk back.
