Page 31 of Mine

“Okay.” I yawned and stretched, yanking my T-shirt off over my head and flipping it over my shoulder as I crossed back to where he was and leaned on the chair. “I just wanna tell you that talking to you earlier helped me a lot. Just knowing that you’re here every night to come home to, it’s a big deal.”

He nodded fast.

“Oh, and I had to drop off money to my mom today, and she said that when she gets back from visiting my Aunt Janet, she’ll teach you how to make the bouillabaisse.”

“Good.”

“All right, then, make sure you take your key.” I smiled at him, then turned around, heading for the bedroom.

“I might not come home.”

“Whatever you think is best,” I said from the entrance to our room, opening one side of the French doors.

“You don’t care if I don’t come home?”

I turned and looked back at him, and he was still at the table, his eyes welling with tears that I ignored. “I just want you to be happy.”

He sucked in a breath.

“Are you happy?”

His brows furrowed.

“’Cause you don’t look happy,” I growled at him. “Beautiful, but not happy.”

His eyes went to the fire, the couch, the kitchen sink, and back on his restless hands. He was trying so hard not to look at me. “I’m sorry about the boots. I was upset.”

“Sure.”

“I won’t do it again.”

“It’s okay, I know you won’t.”

“And I used the last of my tax money to get my hair done; I didn’t touch our checking account.”

“Again, it’s fine.”

His eyes were landing everywhere but on me.

“You didn’t answer… are you happy?”

Finally, the blue-green pools came to rest, meeting mine. “Are you?”

“I would be happy if you came to bed with me, but it’s too early, and you have dancing and drinking to do. I don’t wanna make you just lie there and watch TV while I go comatose next to you.”

He was trembling, and I narrowed my eyes as I looked at him.

“Those boots make your legs look amazing… and your ass.”

He was biting the inside of his cheek, I could tell. “You like the ankle boots?”

“Love them.”

He sucked in his breath. “I thought you didn’t need me.”

“I always need you, but your routine is very important, and when I upset that, you don’t do well. So it was better for you to go to work and stay there and for me to just handle my day, deal with having a gun—”

“A gun?”