Gunner holds up his hands. “I’m not arguing.”
“Bella’s already pissed.” Nick sighs. “Matthew told me we weren’t holding to the deal. You have to do this Roman.”
“And it’s me she’s pissed at.” I agree. “Yelled at me in Italian.”
Gunner laughs, just full out laughs. “I thought I heard her using Rosetta Stone. She’s putting it to use.”
I stand up and nod to the guys. “If anyone asks-”
“Period,” Holden says.
Gunner and Nick nod. We dealt with that for a fun week. I don’t think any of us have had to deal with it before, not really, but living with her showed us a different side. Her yelling at her uterus, crying while eating ice cream and watching sappy movies. Quick temper, faster apologies, lots of sleep.
“Simple.” Gunner nods. “Take care of her.”
I suck at apologies. That’s all I can think as I walk to the Hotel. I suck at apologies. I’m worse with saying what I feel. I told her about my favorite spot in Italy. I talked to her, really talked to her, while we were there.
Just throw sex off the table – that’s what I have to do. Remove it completely.
The gift shop is still open and I find some flowers and then something catches my eyes. It’s a little cat doll with Hawaiian flowers blooming. Sophie loves green and blue, so I grab one that has those colors and buy it as well. I head towards the elevator and see her curled up in a chair there.
Of course. Because I was the asshole who told her she didn’t need her card, then refused to give her mine. I sigh and walk over to her. She doesn’t even look up from her phone. I sit down on the couch and she huffs.
“I’m taken. Fuck off.”
“Prickly,” I murmur.
She sets her phone down, then slowly looks up at me. Her voice is just as hollow. “What?”
“Let’s go upstairs and talk.”
“Oh, now isn’t the time or place.”
I wince at having my own words thrown at me. I take a slow breath. “Please, Sophia.”
She nods and we get in the elevator. I hand her the flowers and she looks at them. Just looks. She holds onto them until we get in the room, then tosses them on the desk. She goes right out to the balcony and sits on the bench seat there.
I sit with her and take another slow breath. I can do this. She’s worth it.
“You were right.”
She rolls her eyes.
“I was being an ass. You don’t need protecting from Bella or conversations.” She doesn’t say anything to that, so I continue. “It didn’t matter to me. I thought we could take care of it and leave you happier and I was wrong. You’ve talked about being equals in the relationship and I need to work on it. I will work on it.”
“Why is this so hard?”
“I could give you plenty of reasons I don’t like … sharing. But it’s not fair to you because it’s all based on other people. They used things to hurt me. Made fun of me. Break me. I could talk about the war. About growing up here barely knowing English. High school hell. But it doesn’t matter because they’re excuses.”
She swallows.
“I’m going to do better because you are important to me and I don’t want something I can fix to come between us.”
“That’s the problem.” She looks at me. “It’s not your job to protect or fix our relationship, Roman. It’s us. We are partners. You and me. And the five of us in total. We have to be all in for this to work or the fights are going to get worse. You have to be able to talk to me and I … I have to be able to accept when you can’t.”
I reach for her hand and stroke slowly. She takes my hand and leans against me. A huge weight comes off my chest. “Your Italian is good.”
“For an eight-year-old.” She grumbles.