Page 69 of Falling for You Again

“I’m fine,” I answer with a tight smile. We both know I’m not.

We climb into bed and we don’t sleep. I toss throughout the night. I can’t turn off my brain. I don’t think Aaron could either. Come morning, he looks as exhausted as I feel.

“Do you want to get coffee at Perkatory?” he asks while we stand at the dual sinks in the en suite bathroom, brushing our teeth.

“I can’t. I have to work.” The chair Uncle Bear started won’t finish itself. My own orders need work. I have to reach Dad today to ask him about the desk he’s building. I couldn’t find a job order, so I don’t know when the client expects it.

Somewhere between these projects, I need to pack up the shop before escrow closes on the building. Everything must go to storage until I figure out what I’m going to do with my life. Because I don’t think going into business with Aaron is the right thing to do, not if his lack of transparency is how he handles issues in our relationship, business or otherwise.

Aaron’s expression flattens. He rinses his toothbrush and drops it in the holder. “What’s wrong, Meli? What did I say to upset you?” His gaze seeks mine in the mirror, but I dodge eye contact.

“I need time to think. There’ve been a lot of changes lately, and I’m trying to process everything.” I rinse my mouth and wipe my chin with a towel. “I’ll be at Artisant all day. Someone has to finish Dad’s and Uncle Bear’s orders if they aren’t going to.”

“I can help.”

“Thanks, but ... I think I need some space.”

His eyes dim. “I understand. I’ll be around if you need me.”

I nod and he leaves the bathroom. I hear him in the closet getting dressed, and I slip out the door.

I arrive at Artisant Designs half expecting my family to be there. They aren’t, and I’m disappointed all over again. But as I crank the music and go to work on my set of bedside tables, then cut the lumber for the armchair seat on Uncle Bear’s project, as I wait for someone—Mom, Dad, Bear—to return my calls, I steadily grow angrier. By the end of the day, I’m fuming over their silent treatment and how they’vetreated me in general through this entire situation. I need to speak up for myself.

I close up the shop and board the T to see if I can find my parents or Uncle Bear at our apartment building. On the ride over I mentally talk through my argument. Yes, I’d intentionally married so the acquisition deal would backfire. But what I did to them was no worse than what they’d done to me. Had I known Uncle Bear sold the building and why—which I still don’t completely understand because he hasn’t given me a full explanation—I believe we could have come to an agreement about what to do with the business and my part in it.

But they never gave me a chance.

Maybe that’s why I don’t get off on my parents’ floor when I take the elevator up or press the button for my uncle’s floor. They don’t value me. Instead, I get off on my floor and knock on Emi’s door.

“Meli! What are you doing here? Where’s Aaron?” She pokes her head into the hallway.

“He’s at his place.”

Her brows dip at my annoyed tone. “Uh-oh. Did you ask him about the building?”

I nod. “Can I come in?”

“Of course. I was just heating up leftover lasagna. Want some?”

“Sure.” But I doubt I’ll eat. I’m too worked up.

“Talk to me,” she says, serving me a plate, and I do.

We settle on the couch to eat. Or she eats. I get up to pace as I explain everything that’s happened since we spoke the other day. I tell her about Aaron finding me at the town house packing after he came looking for me at Stone & Bloom, and about the building that he showed me that I never knew he owns, and that he wants us to go into business together. I complain about my parents, sharing my frustrations and hurt over them ghosting me, which is only stressing me out further. Then I tell her about dinner at Kaye’s and Aaron’s confession afterward and how I learned about the real reason he’d married me, that hedeliberately hadn’t told me about the nuptial agreement he knew his parents would insist I sign.

I even share with her that I ache for him about the loss of his brother, even though I don’t tell her that Aaron blames himself for Liam’s death. That’s not my story to tell. But I do tell her what he asked yesterday—to consider our marriage more than a convenience—and that for a short time, perhaps for just a few moments, Aaron had made me feel wanted and loved. A person of value, a very important person in his life. I tell her that I think he’s in love with me. Or he was before I told him I needed space.

It all comes pouring out of me. I’m a burst dam of thoughts and feelings, and I can’t stop the flood of anger and frustration and disappointment and regret.

“After all that,” I say animatedly when I finish, “I still can’t separate what he did to me from what my parents and uncle have done. They just push me off to the side and make plans around me. Plans, you can bet, that affect me and my future.”

“Wait, wait, wait.” Emi swipes her arms in front of her face. “I get what you’re saying, Meli, and you’re absolutely right. They should have included you. They should have gotten your support, and you have every right to be upset with them. You definitely need to talk with your parents and uncle about that. Don’t brush this off and let them continue to treat you as if you’re not important. You’ve put up with that for way too long. You also need to talk to Aaron,your husband. But do you hear yourself?” she asks, standing up.

“Uh ... yeess?” I drag out the word so that it ends up sounding like a question.

She stares at me with big, round eyes and a slight shake to her head, as if she’s saying,Hello! There is something right in front of you. Don’t you see it?

I stare back. “What am I missing?” There must be something I’m not getting.

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