Page 29 of A Different Husband

“I realized today that you never really moved in.”

“Of course I did.”

“No, you didn’t. The only thing you have here are some of your clothes and the shit you use in the bathroom. There’s no nicknacks, paintings, or all the other little touches that come with a person making a space theirs.”

“Well, it’s not my space.”

“See, that’s the thing, it is. We got married. You were supposed to move in here with me. You’ve just been sleeping over though.”

“I see.” It felt like Flynn punched me in the chest with those words. He wasn’t wrong. I hadn’t moved in, but I also didn’t want to rock the very precarious boat we had been floating around in since the wedding.

“How do we do this?” I finally asked.

My husband shrugged his shoulders. “One step at a time.”

“That sounds oddly simple.”

“I want to give you some space to figure things out, Court. I want you here with me, but you need to want it too.” Before I could interject anything, he threw his hands up in the air to stop me. “You need to take the time to really work through the Beckett situation.”

“It won’t matter. I’ll never go back to him.”

“That might be the case, but it doesn’t mean you would have chosen to be with me under normal circumstances.”

I couldn’t argue with that. Flynn was right. “Okay, but what does that mean for our current living situation?”

“You can have the master bedroom. I’m going to sleep on the couch until I get a bed in the spare room.” One of his spare rooms was a gym, the other was an office. Either one would take some work to transform into a bedroom.

“It’s your bedroom. I can sleep on the couch or go back to…”

“No,” My husband nearly shouted at me. “I mean, I’d prefer if you stayed. We can’t really figure things out if we never see one another.”

“That’s true, but I don’t think it’s right to take your bedroom. It’s your house.”

“It’s our house, Court. We’re married and I invited you to live here with me as my wife. We might sleep in separate spaces until we figure out if you want to remain my wife, or whatever else we need to work through, but this is your house too. I need to know you’re comfortable and that you have a private space to get away from me, if you need it.”

“And what about your private space?”

“I can go in my office or work out my frustrations in the gym until I get some things moved around.”

“Flynn, I don’t want this to be the end of us.”

“Well, that sounds like a really good place to start. When you’re sure, and you’re ready to have a conversation about the future, you let me know and we’ll work on what it takes to get there - together. Unless you don’t want us to do it together,” He reluctantly tacked on at the end.

Chapter 18

COURTNEY

I wasn’tsure what to make of things. It had been a little over two weeks since Flynn moved out of his own bedroom to give me space to work through everything. To be honest, it felt as though it should have taken longer for me to figure out what I wanted. In all honesty, I knew before I walked away from my husband and went to hide in his bedroom that day. The thought of walking away from him hurt me in a way that Beckett pushing me away never did.

That realization brought on a whole slew of issues though. How was I supposed to trust myself, my judgement, or perception of things when I’d been so wrong - for so long - about Beckett? I agreed to marry that man and I had no problem living across town from him while we were together. I couldn’t imagine not living with Flynn.

That wasn’t entirely true. I didn’t have to imagine it, because although we shared a house, we were rarely in it at the same time. If we were, it was usually when we were asleep in separate rooms. I’d never felt lonelier in my life than I had the past two weeks without Flynn’s big presence to fill the empty spaces. I had always loved and respected him, but I was beginning tothink that my feelings for my husband ran much deeper than that. If only he were around for me to tell him.

“You look lost.”

I startled and turned to see Hadley standing in the door of my classroom. “Sorry, I didn’t realize you were there.”

“Obviously. What’s on your mind, bestie?” If only my sigh could be translated into words. “Still living in an icebox at home?”

---