Page 111 of The One I Hate
I laugh and toss my phone back on my bed as I grab my ballet flats to slip on. The only thing Simon told me was to wear something appropriate for “fancy and for fun.” When I asked him what that meant, he refused to elaborate. So I did the best I could and found a red dress that I felt comfortable in, considering my leggings and pants are starting to become a little snug, and paired it with ballet flats. I could pretend I’m wearing flats because of the baby, but let’s be real here—heels were invented by Lucifer himself and they can burn in hell.
I do one last check in the mirror, and give one more swipe of my lipstick, before grabbing my purse and heading out the door.But as soon as I open it, I see Simon standing in front of me, a dozen red roses in his hands.
“Aw, Bug…I had a whole reveal planned.”
“You know you don’t need to impress me anymore.” I lean in and kiss his cheek, taking the roses from him.
“Not true. I need to continue woo-ing you. Just because you’re my girlfriend and baby mama doesn’t mean the romance stops.”
“I think I might hate baby mama worse than daddy.”
“Well, we can discuss alternate names on our way to date stop number one.”
“Number one? There are more than one?”
A cheeky grin comes across his face.
“Mind out of the gutter, Banks.”
“Sorry. Anyway…” Simon opens the door a little wider so I can step out. “The theme of this date is past, present, and future.”
“Why do I feel like I’m in that Christmas movie with the Muppets?”
He laughs and places his hand on the small of my back as he leads me down the stairs. “Oh, Bug, this is going to be so much better.”
“Simon Banks, we are not spending two thousand dollars on a crib!”
Simon turns to me with a perplexed look. “Why not?”
“Because it’s too much.”
He shakes his head. “There will never be too much when it comes to Baby Bug.”
I don’t even know why I’m trying to argue with him. He’s been like this since we walked into the high-end baby boutique he found in Franklin—also known as the “future” part of our date.
Which I thought was adorable. I mean, what man plans part of a date as picking out baby stuff? Then I saw the price tags, and I wanted to vomit.
“Which one do you like better?” Simon is standing back, examining two nearly identical—in both price and looks—cribs. I’m talking fingers under his chin, eyes narrowed and brows pinched. “The white one is a four-in-one convertible. The gray is only a three-in-one, but it has drawers built in, which are handy.”
“I’m sure we can find perfectly good ones for half the price. Especially since we’ll need two.”
Simon snaps his head to me. “What do you mean two?”
“For your place and mine.”
He starts blinking rapidly, like he’s trying to figure out what I’m saying. “Why do you still have a place?”
“Because that’s where I live?”
“Why?”
“Um…I’m not sure how I’m supposed to answer this question.”
Simon takes my arm and leads me to a corner of the store and his tone lowers. “You aren’t moving in with me?”
“I mean, we haven’t talked about that.” Why am I explaining this? Either Simon had a conversation with me I wasn’t aware of or the man is assuming a lot. “This is our first date, which is completely ass backwards if you think about the order we did things. But that doesn’t change that we haven’tactuallytalked about it.”
“I’ve mentioned it.”
