Page 36 of Strange Seduction
Not the part where he said he loved me. Not the part where he looked at me with those tired, honest eyes and swore he just wanted a future with me. No, my brain latched ontothepart—the vasectomy reversal.
The solo decision.
I wasn’t angry. Not really. Just… off-balance.
We’d always known this relationship would require balancing acts.
Time zones. Career goals. His schedule. Mine.
But now we were standing at the edge of something else—something real and rooted.
And I wasn’t sure if we were ready to jump at the same time.
What scared me most wasn’t that he saw a futuretogether;I saw one for us, too.
What scared me was that I wasn’t sure whatmyfuture looked like anymore.
Because of the way he said it—“I’ve been thinking about our future”—I felt everything shift. Suddenly, I wasn’t just Carmen Reyes, Theodore Clayton’s long-distance girlfriend who was fresh out of law school. I was Carmen, someone’sfuturemother, and Theodore Clayton’sfuturewife. All things that I had accepted when our shared future wasn’t force-ripe, and knocking on my door sooner than it needed to.
Fuck.
If I weren’t careful, my whole life would start being aboutfuturesI hadn’t prepared for yet, nor did I agree to take on already.
God, I wish we had talked about this first.
But he hadn’t meant to hurt me.
I knew that.
Theo always moved from the heart. And that heart, for better or worse, had always made room for me and held my best interest.
So, for now, I’ll trust his plan.
And that plan currently involves us stepping out of the room for a bit of fresh air and scenery.
When he told me to get dressed, I didn’t argue.
Well. Not completely.
“Seriously, where are we going?” I asked, tugging a dress off the hanger. “If you say something cryptic like‘you’ll see,’I’m gonna throw your phone out the window.”
He grinned. “You’ll see.”
“Theodore.”
“You’re gonna like it, I promise.”
I rolled my eyes but followed him out anyway.
We drove into Florence. He let our old playlist run—songs we used to listen to on FaceTime when we were a thousand miles apart. His hand rested on my thigh.
Neither of us said much, but it didn’t feel tense.
“Can I be honest?” he asked suddenly, though he knew he didn’t need permission. “I’m surprised you took what I said so lightly.
I cocked an eyebrow. “Lightly, huh?”
“Meaning,” he explained. “I expected you to kick my ass.”
