“Oops, you’re still awake.”
Alec stood in the doorway, and Connor stopped. “And you’re late. It’s after one! You could have at least told me you’d be late, you know?” he said belligerently.
Alec narrowed his eyes. “Sorry, Mom. I figured you wouldn’t be here anyway, and that as a thirty-year-old man, I could decide when I went to bed. Speaking of which: why are you here? You usually sleep at Rachel’s.”
Connor pressed his lips together and looked away.
“Oh no.” Alec groaned loudly. “Don’t tell me you broke up.”
“We weren’t together, Alec.”
“Of course you were, you idiot!” He tugged at his hair in annoyance. “And why are you breaking up now, right after I told Mallory you’ve found the right one and are incredibly happy? She’s mad she had to hear it from me, by the way, just so you know when she yells at you.”
Connor’s head snapped up. “Alec, that's such bullshit. I don’t believe inthe right one.”
“Well, not believing in something doesn’t mean you’re right, Connor. Ask anyone who still believes the Earth is flat.”
He snorted. “Now you’re telling me Rachel is my soul mate, huh?”
“Nonsense. Soul mates are bullshit. But, man, she’sthe right one.” He shook his head and looked at him. “So. What did you do to make her break up with you?”
“You don't think I broke up with her?”
“Did you?”
“Well, no…”
He laughed. “Okay, so what did you do?”
“I said once I never want to get married. She does,” he summed up tonelessly.
Alec mouthed a silentah.
“What?”
“Well…the reason is not as stupid as I thought,” he said with a shrug, walking past him and opening the fridge.
“It isn’t?” Connor asked, surprised. He thought the whole thing was pretty stupid.
“No,” he mumbled, pulling a water bottle out of the fridge door. “If she’s so desperate to get married, that’s obviously a big problem in a relationship with you. It’ll be difficult to find a compromise.”
“We could stay engaged forever,” he replied harshly.
Alec chuckled softly and closed the fridge. “She’d definitely be happy with that!”
Shit. “It’s silly to break up with someone over this,” he said, annoyed. “I…I told her how I felt, okay?”
Alec looked appropriately impressed. “Wow.”
“Exactly, thanks!” He nodded, satisfied. “But it wasn’t enough. And she wouldn’t give me time to think!”
“Do you have to think about getting married?” he asked, frowning. “I thought you were pretty firm in that area.”
His brother was right. He’d never wanted to get married, and he didn’t understand why Rachel needed it so badly, despite her own parents’ terrible marriage.
I’m scared, Connor. Because you have a gigantic commitment issue. Because you want it to beeasy.I’m not easy.
He gritted his teeth.
