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“Turn the boat around,” Margot said. “Please, Eddie. I need to get off now. I need to think.” She pressed a hand to her forehead and turned away. He wanted nothing more in that moment than to go to her, to wrap her in his arms as he had the night before and physically enfold her.
Only he couldn’t. He had tried to do everything right, and still somehow managed to push her away.
When Eddie looked at Margot now, he felt lost at sea.
Chapter Eleven
Margot
“That was a total dick move by Eddie,” Trinity said. “Of course you freaked out and panicked. I definitely would have done the same.” She slid the pastry plate toward Margot. “Here. You get full dibs today. I promise this will improve your mood.”
Margot picked up her fork and toyed with the chocolate muffin, but her stomach was too busy doing flip-flops to signal her brain that she was truly hungry. She still wasn’t sure why she had called Trinity about Eddie’s apartment purchase. Margot knew Trinity kept busy with her work at the Jameson Agency, and had been surprised when Trinity isolated a block in her immediate schedule to devote to her. They had agreed to meet at a coffee shop near the firm Margot worked for – Trinity had been very enthusiastic about the muffin selection.
“So what’s wrong with it?” Trinity asked as she sipped her coffee. “Does the view make it unlivable? Kitchen need to be completely redone? Did Eddie already section off a spot for his man cave?” She chuckled at her own mental image, and Margot couldn't blame her. It certainly seemed like something the old Eddie would do.
Trinity was a few years older than Margot, but they had been fast friends since their first meeting at a Jameson Agency Christmas party. Margot respected Trinity's judgement implicitly in all matters Eddie: she was maybe the only person who had learned to keep him in line over the years, and that was usually by just letting him be himself.
Margot shook her head in response. “That’s the problem,” she mumbled. “It’s perfect. It’s exactly as Eddie guessed: I do like it. I like everything about it.”
Trinity fixed her with a measured look, and Margot quickly doubled-down on dismantling her muffin. She had the strangest intuition that Trinity had been fishing for an approval of the place, as if she had known Margot’s true feelings all along. “So what’s the problem?” Trinity inquired nonchalantly. “Aside from the obvious fact that Eddie went ahead without asking you. You guys can acknowledge that and move on, right?”
“I’m afraid it’s symptomatic of how things are going to be.” Margot sighed. “I don’t want him making every important decision on his own. He may make them with me in mind, but he’s still making them without me. I feel...left behind.”
“You aren’t being left behind,” Trinity assured. “Eddie will come around. He’s just freaking out a little bit right now. He wants so badly to show everyone what a responsible adult he is...and he wants to show you especially. He’s just going about it in a slightly immature way.” Trinity chuckled. “He thinks he can make a complete shift overnight, when the reality is he’s making everyone around him, himself included, totally stressed out and miserable.”
Margot’s cheeks heated. “I don’t want him to change himself because of me,” she whispered. “And I definitely don’t want him to change himself because of the baby. I agree he needed to learn some responsibility, but the Eddie I’ve always known...that’s who I want to be the father of my child.”
Trinity reached across the table and took the fork from Margot’s hand. She gave her empty fingers a reassuring squeeze. “It sounds like you have to trust yourself on this one, Margot. You know how fond I am of Eddie—but is he right for you? At the end of the day, that's something only you can know. But it's something you have to consider, if the two of you have any chance of being happy—together or apart."
Margot's heart raced at Trinity's words. It was a silly reaction, she knew. It's not as if she needed to make a decision right here and now… but she realized her heart was beating so fast at the thought of losing Eddie. He may have gone about it in the densest way possible, but he had just gifted her with a dream apartment. Bigger than even the classic six was the gesture behind it: he was thinking of her. Looking out for her. Taking care of her. This wasn't a threat to her independence at all: it was an invitation by the man she loved to coexist as that same independent being alongside him.
"I love him," she blurted. She dropped her forehead into her free hand with a moan. "God, I don't know why it's so easy to tell you that, and not Eddie. I think that's why all this has got me so freaked out."
"It's finally becoming real," Trinity said. "Margot, if this is really what you want, then I can't express how happy I am for you. But you deserve to give all this as much thought as you need to. The two of you are making a big decision…"
"…and we're the only ones who can know if it's the right one," Margot finished for her.
Trinity nodded happily. Then she grinned. "Although, I don't mind being the deciding factor on another mu
ffin. What do you say?"
"Of course I say yes," Margot said as they rose together. "I'm eating for two these days, remember?"
There was a knock at the door to the classic six.
Eddie stirred from where he lay stretched out on the couch. He massaged his forehead and blinked. “What time is it?” he muttered as he glanced around. He had managed to practically blanket himself in work papers and wedding receipts before dozing off. A glance out toward the patch of sky visible from the roof deck told him it was probably early evening; a rumble from his stomach told him he had already missed dinner.
He maneuvered himself into a seated position, blinked, yawned, and rose. He tapped his phone to check the time, and to see if he had received any texts from Margot while he was out, only to find it dead. She had been avoiding his attempts to contact her all week, and the entire wedding process had practically ground to a halt as a result. Not that Eddie couldn’t handle all the planning himself, it was just that...
He found he didn’t want to. When he had thought he was taking work off Margot’s plate, it had been different. Now, he felt like he was marrying a ghost rather than a prospective life partner. It was all too easy to feel unmotivated to prep the wedding now that he didn’t even know if there was going to be a bride.
The knock at the door sounded again, rousing Eddie from his stupor. “Coming!” he called. He smoothed his rumpled hair and hopelessly stroked at the wrinkles in his shirt. He padded to the front door and pushed it open.
Margot stood on the mat, nervously trading her weight from one foot to the other. Eddie blinked. “Margie? I thought – “ But what he thought didn’t matter the next instant.
Margot rose up on her tiptoes to wrap her arms around his neck and kiss him full on the lips. Eddie grabbed her waist to affix her in place, letting his own lips roam over hers, until they shared a sigh of contentment and both drew back at the same time. He was so relieved to see her he felt like melting, and stopped just short of doing it when he remembered he was supposed to be the pillar of support in their relationship.
Still.
