Page 137 of February

“I’ll add buying champagne to my to-do list, then.”

“And probably champagne flutes. I don’t have those. I still can’t find my wineglasses.”

“I’ll buy you some of those, too,” Monica said.

“What? No way. I can buy my own damn unnecessary wineglasses.”

“Well, they’dbenecessary if I’m staying over a lot because I drink wine, Bridge. And don’t tell me you’re going to be one of those people who has a problem when their girlfriend offers to buy stuff.”

“A problem? No. Buy all the sex toys and lingerie you want me to wear for you, or you want to wear for me. You can buy me those super fluffy socks, too, that are so soft and keep your feet warm even when the floor is freezing. I’d also take those sweats of yours that I borrowed when I stayed at the hotel. Can you get me another pair?”

Monica laughed and said, “Okay. So, pride is clearly not an issue here.”

“Nope.” Bridgette shook her head. “But if you’re going to buy me wineglasses, I’d rather us go shopping together.”

“Yeah?”

“Pick them out together, I mean. I don’t care who buys. I’ll buy. You buy. We go Dutch. I’ve never had someone to buy somethingwith, you know? Not that we’re moving in together, so they’re, like,ourwineglasses, but it would be nice to do that with you, I think.”

“Decorate a place together if we do move in together one day?” Monica asked with a smile.

“Yeah,” she replied. “It sounds silly, probably. You’ve done this before; you were married. But I–”

“Not really, no,” Monica shared. “I moved into Lily’s place when we were together, and it was already decorated. I addedsome of my stuff over the years, but she was pretty particular about what went where, even though she was hardly home. She even had a decorator do Aaron’s room. And not just his nursery, which would’ve been fine; she had someone come in every few years and redo it as he got older. The poor kid just got to tell her what he liked, and that was it. She’d have someone put framed posters on the wall and choose the colors of the paint.”

“God, is she a sociopath? Did you marry a sociopath?”

Monica laughed and replied, “No. She’s just a very successful corporate attorney from an incredibly wealthy family, so… pretty close, but not quite. The house never felt like mine; even the vacation home in the Hamptons was hers. Hell, the place that I have now isn’t really mine. I hired someone to decorate it, too, and didn’t help them much. I’ve never had someone to do that with, either.”

“And you know I’ll never be able to afford a vacation home, right?”

Monica leaned in and said, “But I can. And if this keeps going, one day, we’ll be moving into a place here, and then later, if we decided to get a vacation home, we’d be buying it together with our money.”

“Make sure it’s a one-room cabin because that’d be all I would be able to afford.”

“Babe, listen to me for a second,” Monica said softly. “If we’re buying a vacation home together, it would beourmoney.”

“I know. I heard–”

“We’d be married, Bridge. It would be our money because we’d be married. That’s what I’m trying to tell you.”

“Oh,” she said with wide eyes.

“Don’t freak out.” Monica patted her thigh. “Not proposing. Not even close.”

“Right.” Bridgette nodded.

“Just saying that those are some possible steps for us later.”

“Later. Right,” Bridgette said.

Monica leaned in, kissed her quickly, and said, “You’re really cute right now. You looked totally dazed.”

“Well, the woman I’m in love with just told me that she thinks we could get married one day, so yeah, it got me a little dazed.”

Monica’s eyes widened then.

“Oh, shit,” Bridgette added quickly before she cupped her hand over her mouth. “Sorry,” she mumbled through that hand. “Didn’t mean to say that out loud.”

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