Page 74 of Dream with Me

“To us. Dream with me. Dream with me about our family. Dream with me about what you want for your career. Always dream with me.” We clink our glasses together and take our first sip. I sigh at the deliciousness of having my coffee just how I like it.

Something strikes me, then. Court is this week.

“What should we do about the court date?”

Troy shrugs. “We can call our lawyers in the morning and tell them we want to rescind the divorce paperwork and see what they say. Hopefully, we don’t have to go to court to tell the judge that, but if we do, then we do it, and we do it together.”

“I’d like to think about how to plan to stay connected. Do you have any ideas?” I ask.

“I do.” He smiles. “We should have at least one date night a week with a minimum of two hours of uninterrupted time together. We can go to dinner, go for a drink somewhere, do an activity. But something we can do together. That’s the bare minimum.”

“I agree. We’ll need to get a sitter, though.”

“We can do that. We’ll just need to plan well ahead, so we don’t miss any weeks.”

We spend a while talking about the best way to re-introduce the idea of us all being together again to the kids. They’ll be happy, but we don’t want to do something sudden and confuse them. We’ll be asking the counselor for assistance, but we come up with a plan to have the kids stay here at home, and when Troy isn’t at work, he’ll be here with us. Except, he’ll go back to his place for nighttime until we’re sure everyone is ready—including us—for him to move back in. Once we hash everything out with our plans, I’m itching to tell him about the possibility of working with Tillie and see what he thinks.

I stand to get each of us a second cup of coffee and then return to the table. It dawns on me that I’m smiling, and the pressure that’s been on my chest for some time now is gone.

“So, I’d like to talk with you about my job.”

“Sure. We’ll do whatever you want and need, Shannon. I want you to have all the things you dream of, not just the ones that involve me.” His smile makes my heart melt. “You said what you’re doing isn’t quite what you think you want. Dream with me and tell me what you want, chiclet.”

“Well, I’ve made a friend at work... Tillie. I’ve mentioned her to you before. She’s around my age, a little younger, but she’s been an accountant since she graduated college and is pretty kick ass. She and I have been talking for a while about our career goals and what we don’t like about being at Stinson.”

“What don’t you like about it? You loved it when you did your internship there and when you worked there right out of college.” Troy’s forehead furrows.

“Things have changed quite a bit. The original Mr. Stinson has retired. His son, Jeff, has taken over, and he’s okay, but there’s definitely a culture change now.” I tell him about the sense that only big names and large volume clients are accepted at the firm and that the smaller owned businesses are turned away because they don’t have as much potential for big profit for the firm.

“That’s too bad. It wasn’t like that before, right?”

“No. Definitely not. Mr. Stinson was the kind of business owner who would take on any client. He started the business himself, so he knew how hard it can be for a new or small business owner and how important it is to find people that you can trust, especially when dealing with your money. I liked the personal touch of that type of work model. I get it; Jeff has grown the company financially, but it’s not what I want anymore. Even if I did, I don’t think it should be there because...”

Troy sets his coffee cup on the table and focuses his gaze on me. He squeezes my hands slightly. “Because...”

“Because my supervisor, the one you saw me with at the restaurant.” I pause as Troy’s hand tenses slightly. “He’s making me uncomfortable. It’s been nothing directly physical yet, except for how he was with me at the restaurant that day. By the way, that day was not supposed to be lunch between just the two of us. He tricked me into thinking it would be multiple employees. Also, as soon as we got out the door of the restaurant, I pulled away from him, just so you know. I’ve made it very clear to him not to do those things with me again.” I take a second and sip my coffee, hoping it will help my sudden dry mouth. “I didnotlike how it felt having another man’s hands on me. It felt wrong.”

Troy’s face is tight, and I can’t tell if he’s upset with me or the situation.

“Troy?” I watch as his effort to relax his shoulders and jaw is obvious.

“I’m sorry, it’s... that’s hard to hear. Everything in me wants to go down there and help him understand not to touchmy wife. Not to makemy wifeuncomfortable.” He practically growls the words. “But I also know that’s not the way to handle this and would look bad for you. So, I’m going to tamp that instinct down. I need you to promise you’ll tell me if anything else happens because then we’ll need a plan to stop it. And I can’t promise you I won’t say something if I ever see him out and about.”

I rub my thumb along the top of his hand to soothe his agitation. “I promise if anything else happens, I’ll tell you, and we’ll figure out how to address it. But it may not be an issue much longer.” He lifts a brow in question. “Tillie and I are talking about starting our own small company together. The thing is, Troy, my dreams have changed. I no longer feel this intense need to prove myself through work, and while I enjoy it, my real dream is to have that mental stimulation work brings while contributing something financially to our household. Still,I want to enjoy the time with our family as much as possible, too. I don’t want to be exhausted all the time or have our house in disarray because neither of us has time to keep it up. I don’t want to miss dinners with our children or important appointments. Tillie says I can work as much or as little as I want, so we’re talking about starting out in her house—she has some spare rooms—until we find a place to rent as we build the business. I just have to make sure that it can work financially. I can’t afford to outright pay half for everything required right now, but Tillie has start-up money, and we’re trying to think of a way to arrange it so I can be a full co-owner with her if I want.”

“I’m sure we can make it work financially, and it sounds like an amazing thing for you. Let’s take some time soon and think over options for the partnership piece. It sounds like you’ll be able to pick your clients, which is important. Shannon, if this is what you want, I want it for you.”

“Thank you,” I whisper. I lift my eyes to his again, needing him to hear this next part. “I want that to work if we can, but I also don’t want you to keep working so much extra. I want you to be with us when we’re home. We don’t need you to keep picking up side jobs or so many of the extra shifts. We’re okay.”

Troy closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, then opens them again. “I hear you, and I want to be here with you. It’s what I’ve always wanted. I’m pretty sure I worked so much extra because it was something I coulddoto help our family when I didn’t know what tosayto make things better.”

I rise from my seat and move to him, making my way onto his lap.

“I realized something big I forgot to tell you.” I bite at my lower lip. Troy’s eyes widen.

“Okay... Whatever it is, we’ll figure it out.”

“It’s that I love you. So much.”

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