Yes Please || c.g. {complete}

Negotiations

77

.Layla.

What?

I looked at him with wide eyes. "Carl, maybe we should discuss this first?" I said through a tense smile. Why did he get to make that call?

"Carl, honey, please," my mom said, patting his hand. "Let us do this for you."

He looked at me pleadingly, as if I was supposed to back him up when he was refusing a goddamn house. I just widened my eyes at him.

"Carl, I forgot something in the car," I said through gritted teeth. "I need your help with it."

"With all due respect to both of you," Carl said, ignoring me, "I just can't accept something like this."

I grabbed his arm. "Carl," I repeated, more sternly this time.

He looked at me, and I nodded my head toward the door.

"We will be right back," I smiled at my parents. "So sorry. Pregnancy brain...I'm so forgetful these days."

I dragged Carl out of earshot and started talking to him in a hushed voice as we made our way to the front entrance. "What the hell are you doing back there?"

I turned to face him in a little spot near the door behind a large potted plant. He had that same pleading look on his face again.

"Layla, I can't accept a fucking house from your parents," he said.

I sighed, running a hand through my hair. "Okay, yes, it is admittedly way over the top, but how many times will an opportunity like this come along? Let them help us."

Carl shook his head, looking away in frustration.

"Baby, what is it? Why are you so against this?" I asked him, trying to get him to look at me.

He turned back to face me, and he looked pained. "They think I can't provide for you and our son," he replied, pointing in their direction. "They still don't think I'm good enough."

"That's not true," I tried to reason. "Of course they think you're good enough. They just want to help."

Carl shook his head. "I'll be indebted to your dad for the rest of my life, and I don't want that."

I half laughed. "Carl, he's not some mob boss. He wants to do something nice, and he wants to make things right." I paused to read Carl's tense expression. I put my hand on his cheek. "Baby, this would be so amazing for us."

He shifted and shoved his hands in his pockets. He still looked upset, but I swore he was softening a bit.

I knew he wanted to take financial responsibility, so that was my next move. "Maybe you can negotiate something," I tried. "Like they can make the down payment, and we can pay the rest each month like normal people."

He considered that for a moment and looked back at me.

I gave him my best pleading smile, batting my eyelashes for added effect. "Please, Daddy?"

He rolled his eyes and smirked. "You can't call me that for leverage right now."

I grinned. "But is it working?"

"What it's doing is giving me a boner," he whispered, making me giggle. He shook his head. "Fine. I'll negotiate."

"Yes!" I squealed, hugging him.

"But you definitely do not play fair," he sighed, resting his hand on my lower back as we parted again.

I led the way back to the table. Carl pulled my chair out for me and pushed it in before taking his seat again.