Page 121 of Designs on You

“I don’t know, Natalie. Do we have anything left to talk about?”

“I have a few things I’d like to say.”

“I think you said more than enough last time we talked.”

“This is different.” When he didn’t say anything, she said, “Please, Eugene.”

“Fine.” He moved out of the way and she stepped inside. He closed the door and followed her into the living room.

“Something to drink?” he asked.

“Wine, if you have it.”

He pulled out a bottle of her favorite wine and opened it, poured a glass, and grabbed a beer for himself. He went into the living room and handed the glass to her.

She looked up at him and smiled. “Thanks.”

Her smile was a gut punch. He had to get her out of here as soon as possible. He’d been so broken by her dumping him that his heart felt like it had been squeezed dry, and there was nothing but a dead husk left in his chest. But he’d be damned if he let her see how she’d crushed him.

So he plopped in the chair, opened his beer, and took a couple deep swallows, trying his best to look nonchalant while she casually sipped her wine.

“How’s work going?” she asked.

“Fine.” He took another swallow of beer.

“Okay. Anyway, mine’s going well. I picked up two new clients this week. One wants a total redesign of—”

“Why are you here, Natalie?”

“Oh. We’re getting right into it, huh?”

“Don’t want to waste anyone’s time, do we?”

“I…guess not.” She nervously tucked her hair behind her ears. “Okay, so, here’s the deal. The things I said before. I may have been wrong.”

“Excuse me? The things you said? When you said because I was younger than you that I couldn’t know what I wanted? That what was in my heart was bullshit? Those things?”

“That’s not at all what I said.”

“Pretty much the same thing. I told you I loved you. I broke down our future for you, at least how I saw it. And then you came back and said nah, that’s not how it is, dude. Because this is what you’re really gonna want down the road—you know, when you’re older and more mature, as if I’m some kind of kid who couldn’t possibly make adult decisions yet, who doesn’t know his own heart. You’re not gonna want the woman and children you love, you’re gonna want some other woman to make some babies with and have your happily ever after with. Am I close, Natalie? Isn’t that pretty close to what you said?”

• • •

Eugene was angry. He had every right to be. Natalie had taken all that love he’d poured out to her, and she’d casually thrown it right back in his face as if he had no idea what love was about.

She had to fix this, to make things right between them. She just didn’t know exactly how.

“At the time, I thought I was doing the right thing. I didn’t want you…down the road, to have any regrets.”

He crossed his arms. “I don’t even know what to say to that. You think love has an expiration date?”

She shrugged. “I do have first-hand experience with that happening.”

“Okay. You make a good point. But do you feel like you and me are the same as you and Sean?”

She frowned. “No. Not at all. But I’m scared, Eugene. I don’t want you to get wrapped up in a relationship that you might regret later. There are a lot of people here that could get hurt besides you and me.”

He got up and came over to her, knelt in front her, laying his hands on her knees. “If I thought for one minute that this whole thing between you and me had an expiration date, I would have never told you I loved you. I’d die before hurting Cammie and Christopher. Or you. I’m in this, Natalie. For the long run.”

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