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“Yes, it’s great and super generous, but do you even need the help?”
“Yeah, we always need help. Turnover’s a real bitch, to be honest.”
“You should tell him that,” she advises.
“Do you think Mick will be on board? It’s important for him to buy into this on his own.”
She nods. “I think so. He hates school, so working at your gym would be better than an office.”
“Great. We’ll talk to him about it tonight after dinner. Next subject.”
She lets out a soft laugh. “This feels like a meeting with an agenda and everything.”
I grin. “I’m trying to get all the outside stuff taken care of so that all is left to think about is which horizontal surface we’re going to have sex on.”
Her cheeks turn bright red, but she waves her hand for me to continue. “Fine, what’s next?”
“Living arrangements. I want you to move in with me. First, I live above the gym so it’s easy for Mick to get to work. Second, while you have the hottest ass this side of the Atlantic due to the stairs you walk every day, the place is a death trap. I’d need a full week to itemize all the things that are wrong with it.”
Lauren rolls a tiny bit of the table cloth between her fingers. After a long pause, she says, “Why don’t we see how dating works first?”
“Lovers live together.” This is non-negotiable, but giving her too many ultimatums might scare her off, so I keep that thought to myself
“And when you’re done with me, where do Mick and I live then?” She won’t look me in the eye. I reach out and gently guide her chin around so that she can see I mean business.
“Lauren, there is no breaking up. You just need to get that your idea out of your head right now. Not only are we not breaking up but we’re getting married soon. You’re a little skittish, so I’m holding off on my proposal, but you’re mine now. I’m yours, and you have to accept that responsibility.” I pinch her chin gently.
“How can you say that? You don’t know what the future holds.”
I gather up all my patience. “I do know the future. I’m not breaking up with you, and if you try to leave me, as politically incorrect as this is, I won’t let you. I’ll kidnap you, lock you up in my apartment, feed you, buy you nice things, come make love to you twice a day. You gave me your body when you had never given it to anybody else, and you took mine in return.” I give her a mock look of hurt. “Are you going to throw me away like a used dishcloth?”
“No, I never said that,” she protests.
“Great.” I drop my hand away from her chin. “We’re in agreement. We’re together forever. You’re moving in. I’ll bring some boxes over tonight.”
“Why do I feel like I’m being steamrolled over?”
“I’m making your life safer, which makes me happy. This is what Evers would call a win-win.” I give her a wink and catch the waiter’s attention for the bill.
Chapter Sixteen
LAUREN
Griff says he’s more of an action person than a word person, which is how I find myself packing all of my things into twelve large cardboard boxes. Griff is outside talking to the neighborhood kids and explaining to them that they will no longer have the burden of watching over his Ducati. I assume he’s giving them some consolation money since he seems to like them.
“You ever been to his place?” Mick asks as he stacks his last box near the door.
“No. To be honest, I don’t even know how we got to this point. I vaguely recall talking about how we were breaking up at the beginning of lunch and then at the end, I agreed to move in with him. It was all very confusing.” I tape another box shut. Why does Mick have four boxes and I have eight?
“Do you not want to go? Cuz I can unpack right now.”
I want to pinch his cheeks because I know very well he wants to move out of this hellhole. Who wouldn’t?
“I do want to,” I admit. “I’m just scared because what if it doesn’t work out? What if we move in with him and then three months later he’s like, ‘Nah, I’m tired of you guys’?”
Mick looks around our shabby apartment with its tiny kitchen and tiny living room with the windows where the views are the brick walls of a building behind us.
“Isn’t this all kind of a risk? No one really knows what’s gonna happen tomorrow, so we make choices for today.” He gives a little shrug.
