Confused about what was happening, I stared at her. “Are you sure you’re feeling okay?”
“Are you seeing someone? Is it someone from work? Samantha, maybe?”
“You have lost your mind then.”
Her hands went back to grip the edge. “You’re avoiding the question. Are you cheating on me, Jack?”
I took back the space I’d created between us and put my hands on the counter behind her, trapping her between my arms. I bent down until her face was only inches away from mine and I could look into her beautiful, beautiful eyes.
“What are you doing, Rose? Don’t make me ask again.”
She didn’t bristle at my stern words. Instead her face gentled, her eyes staring right back into mine. “I’m trying to have a fight.”
I waited for her to go on.
“You never make anything easy, do you?” She sighed. “I happen to think a little fighting is healthy in a marriage. First of all, it’s never good to hold things in, so you have to keep the lines of communication open if you want to last. Which you’re not very good at, but you’ll start working on it. I’m sure.”
“Explain why you’re not signing the papers,” I insisted.
She started to bite her lower lip, presumably trying to find the right words. I waited patiently. Her response was important.
“Because I don’t want to get a divorce.”
“It wasn’t a real marriage. I lied to you. I tricked you into it. You didn’t have to marry me—I could’ve bought the property and rented it to you.”
“I would’ve never accepted it. You knew it, you said so yourself. Why did you do it?”
“I already answered that question the day you came to my office.”
“To have a shot with me. You never apologized.”
“And I won’t now either. I told you I wouldn’t take the time I spent with you back.”
“Yet you want a divorce.”
I nodded. Moving just an inch closer, my eyes fell to her lips, which were starting to turn red with all her biting. “I do.”
“Why?” she asked.
“You said it yourself—you think I’m seeing someone else.”
She shook her head, her eyes dropping to my mouth and then coming back to my eyes. Her chest had started to rise and fall faster. She shook her head, a very small movement. Her shoulders were slightly trembling as well.
“I don’t think you’d have the time, what with stalking me and all that.”
The things she said to me… My lips twitched, drawing the attention of her gaze.
“A lot of work piled up at the office because of you.”
“I can imagine. Rough life, stalker life.”
“Tell me why you’re not signing the papers, Rose.”
“If I do, will you tell me why you want to get a divorce after going through the trouble of tricking me into a marriage?” she countered.
I nodded, my eyes set intently on hers.
“Okay then.” She straightened a little and I gave her just enough space to do so. “It’s going to be cheesy, but don’t blame me. You asked.”
“I think I can handle it. Go ahead.”
“I…I didn’t have the best childhood, obviously. I lived in a house. Not a home. I had people who were related to me, but I didn’t have family. I didn’t have anyone I could lean on. I didn’t have anyone who would take care of me if I needed it. I had myself. I did everything myself. For a really long time, it was just me against the world. Then I grew up and I had other people to hold hands with, but they weren’t the right ones. I knew they wouldn’t stick so I never let myself become vulnerable. I never let anyone take care of me. Until you. You, big idiot. Until you gave everything that I’ve longed for since I was nine. You gave me a family. My own. The two of us against everything and everyone. You broke every wall I had up and then—uh, you know what? Never mind. I love you. There. Happy? I don’t like you at the moment, but I liked you before—very much so. So, yes, I love you. I didn’t want you in the beginning. I barely liked you. You’re not my type at all. You’re arrogant at times, though not all the time. Actually, who am I kidding? You are, though I don’t think you even realize you’re being arrogant. You’re prickly. You don’t notice people. You got better at that, but you didn’t even know your own doorman’s name when I first came here.”
“I talk to him every day,” I said.
“Now you do, but you didn’t before. Then there is the fact that you’re rich. I know this is my own hang-up. This is not on you, but I usually don’t like rich people. You are rude. You were rude—same thing, in my opinion. You’re surly. Frowny. You already know I used to count your smiles. You never smiled! Never. That’s a big thing for me. I like smiling, laughing. I like people to smile at me, laugh with me.”
Now that she had gained steam, her voice was slowly rising. I arched an eyebrow, but she didn’t notice because she was only meeting my eyes every now and then. She was busy thinking, her breathing hard, her forehead all creased as she was rattling off all the reasons she didn’t like me.
“Now I smile,” I said before she could keep going. She met my eyes for a brief moment.
“Don’t interrupt.”
This time I didn’t hide my smile. “I apologize. Go on, please.”
“You don’t smile. You didn’t talk in the beginning, let alone smile! What kind of person doesn’t talk? You helped every day at the coffee shop, showed up every night to pick me up, yet you barely talked. If you wanted to have a shot with me, you were doing a piss-poor job of it.”
“I told you I was trying to stay away so you could—”
“I said, don’t interrupt. You never compliment me. It’s always, You look tired, you look this, you look that.”
“You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever met. You’re usually tired, but beautiful despite that.”
She slapped me on my chest then left her hand exactly where it was with her palm right on my heart.
“See! You can’t even compliment me to save your life. You frown too much.”
She stopped, seemed to be thinking some more.
“You already said that. What else you got?” I asked.
“I’m thinking.”
I reached up and tucked a piece of hair behind her ear, my fingertips lingering on the skin of her neck and shoulders.
“You’re the most precious thing in the world to me, Rose.”
She shivered.
“You’re all those things. You did all those things,” she whispered.
“I can change for you. I did change for you.”
“I shouldn’t want you. I shouldn’t want us.”
“You shouldn’t, but do so anyway.”
She put her other hand on my chest as well, holding on to the lapels of my jacket. “You did change, and I love you despite all the things I don’t like about you. I probably love you more because of them. I don’t know. I love it when you frown at me for no damn reason. I find it so amusing. I’ve lost my mind. I enjoy making you frown.”
“I usually do have a good reason.”