Page 7 of Sweet Union
“What’s going on in here?” Alek asks as he opens Nat’s bedroom door. He pauses when he sees me. “I’m not surprised. You two need to stop fighting. It’s getting fucking ridiculous.”
Nat flinches. “Luca and I are not fighting.”
He raises an eyebrow. “You could have fooled me.”
“We’ve got this handled,” I tell him as I take in a deep breath. “Ok?”
Alek looks between Nat and me before nodding slowly. “Just stop screaming.” He shuts the door behind him, leaving us alone.
It’s like all the tension has magically diffused.
“Nat, just talk to me.” I feel like screaming inside.
She sighs deeply. “I don’t know how to feel, Luca.”
“Tell me.”
“No. It’s only going to hurt you.”
“I don’t care. Tell me,” I growl.
“I don’t trust you,” she blurts out.
I take a step back. “You don’t trust me? How?”
“Luca … I can admit that I messed up. I shouldn’t have gone to Romeo. And I’m sorry for that. But you have to admit that your plans were not good.”
“Yes, they were.”
“No, they were not.”
“What are we? Twelve?” I scoff. “Nat. I had good ideas, and they would have worked if you’d just trusted me to complete them.”
“Maybe. But I didn’t. And I’m struggling to trust you again because you haven’t even asked me how I am. You didn’t even ask me how it felt to be handcuffed by the police and taken to the police station. I felt humiliated, Luca. I would have appreciated it if you had asked me about that.”
“Of course, I was worried, Nat. Of course, I was.”
“But you didn’t check in with me. You just made your plans without consulting me. You didn’t include me.”
“I didn’t know you wanted to be.”
“Because you just did it without asking. You asked me to stand at your side, and I have, but that means as your equal. The reason I’m struggling to trust you right now is because I’m not sure if you’re going to run off with another plan and leave me out of the loop again.”
“I … I didn’t know.”
“I know. I didn’t tell you before because I never wanted to hurt your feelings.”
“Well, you did that already,” I admit.
She looks away from me. “It seems that way.”
“So, what do we do now?”
“I’m not sure.”
“Come back home,” I say before I can stop myself. “I want you back home with me, Nat. Things may be tense right now, but we can’t work through it if we’re not even talking to each other.”
She looks up at me with a look I can’t quite decipher. Is it hope? Love? Finally, she speaks. “Ok. I’ll come back home.”
