Page 85 of Spark
“Hand the cell to Bay.”
“Cora,” Bay answers. “I knew Missy was mine the moment I laid eyes on her. I was an idiot and I pushed her away, but I still knew she was the only woman in the world for me.”
“Thanks, see you later,” Cora says, ending the call. “Call Warrick, see what he says.”
I shake my head. “No, I can’t.”
“Did he ask you to marry him yet?” Octy asks.
Swallowing thickly, I debate lying, but what would be the point? I like everyone at this table, and if I do end up staying in a relationship with Warrick and he ends up building the house he talked about earlier, then they’re all going to be my neighbors. “Yes, he asked me.”
“So you’re engaged?” James asks excitedly.
I shake my head. “No. I said no.”
“You said no?” Etta asks slowly.
I nod.
“Why?” Bonnie asks.
“Lots of reasons, but mainly because I’ve only known him for a week.”
The entire group apart from me starts to laugh.
“It’s so fucked up that none of us think it’s crazy to agree to marry someone you’ve only known for a matter of days,” Parker says, grinning widely.
The food arrives, interrupting this insane conversation, and for a while no one asks me anything else about Warrick, and I’m grateful. Instead, they talk about babies and work and normal stuff. I don’t have anything to contribute, but I enjoy the normality of it.
“Do you love him?” Henry asks, quietly enough that unless they’re specifically listening, I doubt anyone else heard him.
Sucking in a sharp breath, I turn to look at him and shrug. “It’s been a week.”
“I know. These guys move fast, but even though I was terrified of Anders, I still knew how I felt about him. He’s the first man I’ve ever been in a relationship with. He was my first anything, to be honest.”
“Warrick is my first anything too,” I admit. “I think I love him. But…” I trail off, wanting to tell Henry everything but not wanting him to judge me. “My situation is different. Warrick and I didn’t meet on the street or in a bar. I wasn’t wild camping, I was living in a tent, because…” Swallowing thickly, I blurt, “Because I was homeless. I was living in a tent because I was homeless. I didn’t finish high school. I was working as a stripper, and when they tried to make me sell my body, I ran away. I was living in my car but it got stolen, and all I had left was the stupid tent. I was living in it because it was that or sleeping rough. I’m staying with Warrick because I have nowhere else to go.”
At some point while I was talking, my eyes must have closed, because when I open them again, I’m expecting to find disgust or pity in Henry’s eyes, but instead he’s smiling at me sadly. “Sounds like you found each other at exactly the right time.”
“I don’t have a job. I don’t have any money. I don’t have any other options. It’s his place or homelessness. He’s called it ourhome since the moment he told me I could move into his spare room.” Pulling out my purse, I find the bank card he gave me and wave it in the air. “He put me on his bank account and gave me a card. He keeps filling the refrigerator with food and telling me to eat. He took me shopping and paid for these clothes and this purse and I…”
“You what?” he asks.
“All he’s getting is me. After we had sex, I had to really think about if I wanted him or if I was just grateful for everything he’d done for me,” I admit.
“And what did you decide?”
“I want him. Of course I want him, but how can I marry him when I literally bring nothing to the relationship except a mountain of metaphorical baggage and the ability to pole dance?” I hiss, feeling tears welling in the backs of my eyes again.
“But do you love him?” Henry asks calmly.
“Of course I love him,” I blurt.
“Then that’s all that matters,” he says emphatically. “Warrick doesn’t care what you did to pay your bills. I doubt he cares that you didn’t graduate from high school. I know he won’t care that you’re broke and that you don’t have a job. He saw you and realized that you are the one woman he’s been waiting his entire life for. Everything else is just details.”
“You make it sound so simple,” I whisper.
“Because it is simple. Most people don’t get to experience what we have. They never have that total certainty that their partner is all in. That they have zero doubt and no reservations. Warrick loves you, and he wants to marry you because every cell and atom inside of him knows that you are his person. Ask yourself this. If the house and the money went away, and you had to pitch your tent and live in it again with him, would you still want him?” he asks.
