She didn’t answer right away. She just picked up her fork, cutting into the food like she needed a second to think.
“You want me to be honest?” she asked finally.
“Always.”
“I need you to stop hiding things from me,” she said. “Stop telling me what’s good for me and what I can and can’t handle. I’m not a kid, Marlon.”
“I know that.”
“Then act like it. What happened to all that communication you was pushing for? It ran out or?”
All I could say in response was, “I’m sorry, Aurora.”
She reached for the bottle and topped her glass off, then she took a sip, leaning back in her chair with eyes on me.
“You still circling it,” she said.
“I’m not?—”
“You are!” She cut in. “You been talking around something since I got here.”
She set the glass down with force.
“Just say it! You scared or something?”
I exhaled slowly, dragging my hand across the table, fingers pressing into the wood.
“It ain’t that simple, Bunny.”
“It is,” she said. “You just don’t want it to be.”
I looked at her. She wasn’t giving me a break or letting me ease into it. She wanted it straight up. So I gave it to her.
“…back in the day,” I started, my voice lowered now, “before your parents got married… me and your mother… had sex.”
She didn’t move.
“I regret it,” I rushed. “I never should’ve done it.”
Still nothing from her.
So I pushed through it.
“Yes, your father and her were together,” I added. “It was just… it was a lot going on back then. We were so young and messy. I feel bad about it to this day. And then I started sleeping with you and?—”
“Stop.”
I stopped.
She sat there for a second, staring at me like she was trying to process what I just said. Then she laughed. “You’re joking.”
“I’m not.”
Her smile dropped. “You fucked my mother?”
“Yes.”
“And now you’re sitting here acting like that’s the reason you can’t be with me?”
