I rear back, have to lock my knees to keep upright, that wounds me so deeply. She flinches and looks away, exhaling heavily.
“It’s that round ligament pain the doctor mentioned, okay?” She pushes out of my arms. “I’m fine. I wouldn’t hide it if I wasn’t. I’m not like that.”
You’re what’s the matter with me.
Christ.
She’s not wrong.
I created this mess.
Added to it.
And I can’t continue to stare into her ravaged face.
I step back from her.
“Leo?”
“I have to go,” I whisper.
“Leo, I?—”
“I’ll come back. I promise.”
But right now, I can’t look at her, talk to her, be here with her.
So…I turn and get the fuck out of there.
Forty-Three
Harper
I wait for him to come back for hours, the smell of fries in the air, the milkshake melting and creating a ring of condensation on the coffee table.
Eventually, though, my stomach can’t take the scent any longer.
I toss the fries, get a towel to clean up the shake, not wanting to ruin his furniture.
And all the while, I’m trying to figure out what the hell is going on in my head.
The bills, the financial stuff…that stings.
No, I don’t make as much money as him, but I hadn’t really thought it was that much of a concern. I’ve always found a way to support myself. I always would.
The question that’s really eating at me is?—
Does Leo not believe that I’m capable of that? Capable of managing my finances and taking care of our baby?
Or is it some weird control thing and it’s only going to get worse as time goes on?
Is it money today, friends tomorrow, a job a few months down the line?
Do I really know him at all?
Or have I made a huge mistake?
And watching him walk away again just like every other man I’ve ever let into my heart, just like he had that day in my kitchen…
