Page 164 of The Bonus

“Part-time,” I say as I walk out to the edge of the stairs to look out over the children down by the lake.

“I’ll be here four days a week, that’s more time here than I’ll be in New York.”

I spin toward him. “Are you sure about this?”

He holds his hand up at our surroundings. “Does this house look uncertain?”

My stomach flips with nerves as we stare at each other.

“I’m going to tell them over dinner,” he says.

“What are you going to say?”

“I’ve gone over the conversation in my head a million times and I keep coming back to one thing.”

“What’s that?”

“The truth.”

“The truth?” I frown. “What do you mean, the truth? The truth between us is ugly.”

“I’m going to tell them that we were friends and we kissed and… We had sex.”

What?

“They’re too young for the sex part,” I whisper in a panic.

“Okay…not the sex on the desk part.”

I nod.

“I’ll tell them we did it in a bed.” He gives me a playful wink.

“No sex talk at all,” I stammer. “You can tell them all about the birds and the bees in five years.”

“Deal,” he replies without hesitation.

Five years.

We stare at each other and it’s weird… Something’s different tonight. We aren’t hating each other, or maybe I’m just sick and tired of hating him. Either way…it feels nice to not want to stab him.

“So…what’s for dinner?” I ask.

“Well…” He shrugs. “I was going to cook, but…”

“But you can’t cook?”

“Coming from you, that’s an insulting question,” he fires back. “I’ve ordered pizza to make the night run smoother.”

“Okay.”

“I wasn’t sure what they liked, so I ordered one of everything.”

“How many pizzas did you order?”

“Ten.”

“Ten,” I gasp.

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