Page 141 of The October Arrangement

“Whatever,” Olivia sighed. “Okay. Bye. I’ll call you tomorrow.” She practically pushed us out of her room.

Chapter Fifty-One

Simon

We stepped into the penthouse, and a strange feeling swept over me. For eighteen years, there had always been something next. Now, our children were beginning lives of their own, and somehow, Bella and I were right back where we started. Just the two of us in the penthouse.

I walked over to the bar and poured us a drink while Bella sat on the couch.

“What do we do now?” I sat beside her. “For eighteen years, everything we did revolved around them.”

“Pretty much,” Bella sighed.

“We scheduled dinner around them,” I said.

“And vacations,” Bella added.

“And weekends.” I tipped the glass to my lips.

“And soccer, dance, and all the school events,” Bella said.

“And the doctor’s appointments, and birthday parties. I don’t know what we’re supposed to do with all this time.”

“We had a life before kids, Simon.”

“Did we, though?” My brow arched.

“We were married before they were born.”

“Barely. We found out you were pregnant on our honeymoon.” I set my drink down and pulled her legs over my lap. “What are we supposed to do now when we don’t have somewhere to be every Saturday morning? When there’s nobody waiting for us to come home?”

“I suppose we’ll figure it out,” she said.

“I don’t like that answer, sweetheart.”

“Of course you don’t. You want a plan,” she smirked.

“I like plans.” I smiled.

“You like control, Simon.”

“That too.” I grinned.

“We’ll be fine.” She smiled. “Think of it this way. We can go back to having sex all over this penthouse. Like we did before the kids were born. And we won’t have to rush, knowing they could walk through the door at any second because they’re three and a half hours away.”

“I like the way you think.” The corners of my mouth curved upward.

“We did our job. We raised our kids. Now it’s time for us to live our own lives again,” she said.

“Do you think it’s possible?” I reached over and softly stroked her hair.

“I don’t know,” she sighed. “I already miss them.”

“So do I, sweetheart.”

Two Months Later

Two months after we moved Julian and Olivia to Harvard, I discovered something unexpected. I fucking loved being an empty nester. Although I’d never admitted it to Bella, I knew she loved it too. We made sure to talk to the twins every day, and it was nice. But having the penthouse to ourselves again was even better. We’d found a new routine. Not the one we’d had before the kids. There was no going back to that. Bella and I weren’t the same people we’d been before Olivia and Julian. This routine belonged to who we’d become.