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“Kids?”
“Eventually.”
“And Brittany wants those things, too?”
“Yeah, I’m pretty sure we’re on the same page.”
“How’s the married life?” I ask Ben Tuesday when we take our lunch together.
He grins. “No complaints so far.”
“How’d y’all’s parents take the news that the two of you eloped?”
His grin fades. “Fine.”
It doesn’t seem like it, but I’m not going to dig further into it. If Ben wants to talk about something, he will.
“Are y’all going on a honeymoon?”
“Yeah, once my bank account has some time to recover from going to Vegas. She wants to go to Fiji.” He shakes his head. “Like, what’s wrong with a beach on our own shore?” he jokes. “But that’s where she wants to go, so once we’ve saved up for it, that’s where we’re headed.”
“Has she moved in with you yet?”
“She was living with me already. Everything was already at my house, except for her furniture. Right now, we’re in a battle of what to keep and what to sell, which is really a battle about who has better shit. She doesn’t want to get rid of any of her stuff, even if mine is better.”
“Good luck with that. It was easy with Brittany because she only had kitchen stuff.”
“We’ll get it figured out.”
The rest of lunch, he tells me about their tri
p to pick out his wedding band. Melissa didn’t like any he liked and vice versa. It took three stores before they settled on one. The day is long once we return to the office.
As usual, I beat Brittany home. I get started on dinner and play fetch with Lily in the backyard while the casserole is in the oven. Soon, dinner is cooked and Brittany still isn’t home. I check my phone, but there’s no message from her that she’ll be late. I play with Lily while I wait, getting worried once she’s an hour late. I’m about to call her, but then I hear banging or clashing coming from the house. Brittany’s purse is on the floor, its contents scattered on the floor. She has the fridge open, but after she gets a Sun Drop, she slams it closed.
“Hey, what’s going on?” I ask, causing her to whirl around to face me. Her eyes are red and her cheeks are streaked with tears. The can of soda is shaking because her hands are. I go to her and wrap my arms around her. “Britt, what’s wrong?”
The tears she was holding back quickly wet my T-shirt. She’s starting to scare me. I need her to tell me what’s wrong. What happened. But all she can do now is cry. I hold her in my arms and Lily leans against our legs.
“Come on,” I whisper once her crying has calmed some. “Tell me what happened.”
“I’m sorry. I was just freaked out.”
“Why?”
The words start rushing out of her mouth. “There’s a project coming up that my boss thought would be great for me to help on. So, last week, she sent me to work with this guy from another department.” Right. She told me about this because the guy is a flirt. “But today, he was dragging things out and we ended up having to stay late to get the work done, so we were the only ones there. He kept saying these inappropriate things that were making me uncomfortable, and then he kissed me. He was pissed when I pushed him away. There’s still a week left on this project and it could mean a promotion for me. Not to mention, he’s higher up than I am. What am I supposed to do? I can’t…I can’t work with him again.” She pushes away from me and rushes to the trash can to throw up.
Furious doesn’t even begin to describe how I feel. I wish I could fight this battle for her, but it’s not like I can go into her work and do anything. All I can do this second is hold her hair and rub her back. I don’t like seeing her this distressed either.
“Go shower and we’ll talk afterward,” I tell her when she’s done.
She shakes her head. “I don’t want to.”
“What do you want then?”
“I want you and me in the recliner.”
I can’t deny her that. After she comes back from brushing her teeth, we’re situated in my recliner. “You need to report it.”
