Page 18 of Don Caselli

It was the first genuine smile I saw since seeing her today. As she leaned against the door, she stared straight at me. “Never against marriage. My parents have been married for twenty-eight years. I would love to be married in a nice ceremony where my daddy walks me down the aisle and I have all the different wedding festivities.”

“But?”

“Why are you assuming there is abut?”

My phone interrupted our conversation when it started ringing. I silenced the call from Kennedy and gave Navy my full attention. No sooner than I silenced the call, a shit ton of back-to-back text messages came through, which let me know she was pissed that I was ignoring her.

“You can answer your phone. I promise I won’t speak and get you in trouble,” she continued to tease, as I stared at her.

“But?” I pushed.

She dropped her shoulders. “I don’t want children.”

“Everyone says that shit when they’re our age… how old are you?”

“Twenty-two. My birthday is in a couple weeks.” She did a little dance in her seat, and I smirked ‘cause she was so fucking cute.

“Eventually you’ll change your mind.” I flipped open her kindle and was surprised that it wasn’t dead.

“How old are you?”

“Turning twenty-five in a few weeks.”

She side-eyed me. “When is your birthday?”

“June fifteenth.”

Navy nearly launched herself through the closed roof when I told her my birthday. “I’m June seventeenth… are you being serious?”

“I am.”

“See, I knew there was a reason we were locked in with each other. Real recognizes real.” She smiled at me. “And you’re not that much older than me… so please. Don’t ever plan on changing my mind, either. Children aren’t something that I want or feel I need to make my life complete.”

“I can respect it.”

“What about you?”

I stared at her. “I’m good with having them or not having them… never really thought about it.”

She folded her arms. “You’ve never thought about if you wanted to have children or not?”

It was like the thought was so mind-boggling to her that I, as a man, never sat down and decided whether I ever wanted to have children. It wasn’t something that I had time to think about.

“A girlfriend… maybe even a fiancée, I may have thought about a time or two. Children… never. Not because I dislike them, but because it wasn’t on my mental.”

“Hmm.”

“Hmm, what?”

She smirked. “Nothing… just interesting.”

I swiped up on her kindle and she tried to grab it from me. “Nah, don’t be shy now… what you be reading about?”

“Fucking,” she blurted.

I paused and then started laughing. “Long distance was hard on you, huh?”

She covered her face with both her hands. “Omg, please leave me alone. I just like some spicy shit.”

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