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“What the fuck is this, Emma?” Ryan growls, holding my phone up to my face when he marches into the bedroom. On the screen is a text from Addy telling me to confront Ryan about treating me better and not back down.

Shit.

Wait a minute…why is he looking through my phone?

“Why were you snooping through my phone?” I ignore his question completely.

“I wasn’t.” He shifts his eyes from mine for a fraction of a second. In that instant, I know he’s lying. “It went off and I checked it. Don’t ignore my question! Are you talking about us to your friends?”

“You’re lying! Why were you looking through my phone?” Both of us are now ignoring the other’s question. I have a sickening feeling that this is going to be a doozy of a fight. I’m filled with anger that he’s been spying on me.

“Answer my question!” He gets right up in my face, screaming.

“Answer my question!” I scream back at him.

He takes a step back from me and chucks my phone at the wall. It falls to the floor in three separate pieces, the back and the battery falling off from the contact.

“Why do you do this to me? You know it bothers me!” He stands and begins pacing the room like a caged tiger. I watch him carefully, taking in every movement he makes.

“I should be able to talk to my friends.”

“No! We always end up fighting when you do. They are poisoning you against me. Why do you let them do this to us? Look what they do to us!”

I watch him, unsure of what to say to his comments.

“Ryan, it’s not like that. They just listen to me and let me work through my thoughts.”

He drops to his knees in front of the bed and grabs my face in his hands. “Baby, I love you. Please don’t let them come between us. If you have a problem, talk to me. Don’t let your friends and family take away what we have.” He looks so distraught that my immediate reaction is to say whatever it takes to ease his fears.

“Okay, baby. I’m sorry. I love you,” I whisper. Relief floods his face and he pulls me into his arms.

“I can’t lose you, baby. I need you.” He pulls me down and presses his lips to mine. I kiss him back, several different emotions warring inside me. Relief that we are no longer fighting and that I could ease his distress. Anger that he went through my phone and confusion about what is going on. Something doesn’t feel right…I just wish I could figure out what it is.

* * * *

“Hey, Em! Come here!” Ryan calls as I’m lying in bed reading. I grumble and throw the covers off my legs before making my way to the kitchen where I find Ryan standing by an open dishwasher.

“What’s up?”

“Did you load the dishwasher?”

I resist the urge to roll my eyes. “No, the gnomes did it,” I reply sarcastically and he growls.

“Stop being a brat.”

I sigh and nod my head. “Yes, Ryan, I loaded the dishwasher.”

“You did it wrong. The dishes are never going to get clean this way.”

Oh my God, seriously?

“Ryan, this is the way I’ve been loading the dishwasher my whole life and it’s always been okay.” It feels a little surreal that we are actually arguing about how to load the dishwasher right now. It might be the most ridiculous conversation I’ve ever had with anyone.

“Well, you’ve gotten lucky then, because it’s wrong.”

“You know what, Ryan? I’ll load the dishwasher my way and if you ever actually do the dishes, you can do it your way.” I mean, seriously. He doesn’t even help out around here and now he’s going to criticize the way I do things?

“Baby, I’m just trying to help you,” he says softly.