AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Yeah, me too.”
“Have you guys been having problems?” I questioned her.
She shook her head. “No. Nothing that I was aware of. We’re living together, and we haven’t been fighting at all. Granted, I work a lot of evenings, so by the time I get home, he’s already asleep. Then, he’s up early to go to work. But we’ve had discussions about marriage, so this feels completely out of the blue.”
“You’re living together. How effective is a separation going to be?” Cam chimed in.
Tears filled Deanna’s eyes. “He said he’s going to move back in with his parents until he figures out what he wants to do.”
This was so confusing to me. “Did he explain why he wants to separate? I mean, two years is a long time to decide to want a separation so suddenly, especially if you’re already living together and not having any problems. I imagine he has a reason, right?”
“That’s just it,” she started. “There’s no reason. Nothing he’s sharing, anyway. He just said he thinks we need to take a break. We’ve been together for so long, and he just wants to make sure it’s the right thing.”
It seemed strange to me that a man would leave the place he was living with his girlfriend if they weren’t having problems and had had discussions of marriage. Then again, I wondered if it was possible he was having commitment issues. “How recently did you two talk about marriage?” I asked.
“Within the last two or three months,” Deanna replied.
Okay, so maybe this wasn’t so strange after all. “Maybe he’s just getting cold feet,” I suggested. “I realize he hasn’t proposed and that you aren’t planning a wedding yet, but maybe the recent discussion is making him take a hard look at where he is now and where he wants to go. It might not be a bad thing. He probably just wants to be sure that you’re the one for him.”
Deanna swiped at the tears that had managed to escape and roll down her cheeks. “I have no questions about my feelings for him. How is he suddenly not sure?”
I looked at Cam. “I feel like you’re better equipped to answer that. I don’t understand why a guy would go as far as Lance has with Deanna, and then at the mere mention of marriage, suddenly start to question if she’s a woman he wants to spend his life with. He was already living with her.”
Cam turned his focus to Deanna, and he shot her a sympathetic look. “Assuming he’s being honest in all that he’s telling you, my best guess is that he’s worried about his ability to take care of you.”
“What?” Deanna asked, clearly just as confused as I was.
Cam leaned his forearms on the bar and explained, “A lot of men have traditional values when it comes to stuff like this. If this is the case with Lance, he was content to live together and play pretend, but the minute it gets serious, things change. He suddenly realizes that what he believes his role in a marriage is might not be something he can do. His job is to take care of you, and maybe he doesn’t feel equipped just yet to do that.”
My brows pulled together. Before Deanna could respond to that, I said, “I don’t understand what you mean by that. What does marriage change about his ability to take care of her?”
Standing up straight, Cam replied, “Deanna and Lance are living together in an apartment. Marriage is a big step. He might think that it means buying a house together and starting a family. Maybe he doesn’t feel he can provide that right now.”
“So, it’s a financial thing?” Deanna questioned Cam.
Cam shrugged. “I don’t know. He’d have to tell you that, but that’s my best guess.”
Deanna took in Cam’s words, considered them, and said, “I need to check on my tables.” She looked at me and asked, “Do I have makeup running down my face?”
I shook my head. “You’re good.”
With that, she took off to check on her tables. I watched her go, and I felt my heart break for what she was going through. The conversation we’d just had forced me to consider my relationship with Jesse and the kind of man he was.
If he had done to me what Deanna’s boyfriend was doing to her after two years, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to wipe my tears, put a smile on my face, and do my job.
Then again, the thought of Jesse doing to me what Lance was doing to Deanna seemed impossible. We’d been through such a long separation already, and we both knew what it was like to live without one another.
Maybe he and I had a better appreciation for what it meant to have each other in our lives.
Whatever it was, I prayed I’d never have to walk in here with tears in my eyes because the man I loved was breaking my heart.
SEVENTEEN
Sawyer
Everyone seemed to be having a rough week.
Well, everyone except for me.
