One Curvy Night

Chapter 14: Where we confront our fears

The Perfect Boyfriend's POV

I woke up with a smile on my face, all thanks to the girl lying next to me in my bed. My mind kept running over those last seven words she said to me before promptly falling asleep.

I glanced down at her face, which was peacefully angelic, until she gave a loud snort and opened her eyes wide.

"Good morning, darling." I whispered as I pulled her in tight for a hug and a kiss. She smiled, curving her arms around my lower back.

"Good morning." She looked up at me smiling, and my heart should have exploded from contentment.

"I love you." I blurted out, wanting to hear those words from her again. Instead, I ruined the moment, as she gradually went stiff in my arms, her smile slowly drifting away as she seemed to avoid my gaze. I stiffened in response. Did she not mean it? was it just an accident, those words?

"Oh," she said before turning and sitting up "okay great."

"Do you not remember?" I asked, sitting up next to her.

"I think it's better if I go." She said quirky instead of answering me, crawling out of bed while looking for her clothes. I could see her planning her exit from my apartment, but I was hoping she wasn't planning to leave my life. She would then have to deal with a pretty stubborn man.

"Better for who?" I asked, following her out of bed. "I think we should at least talk about it before you rush out."

"I just need some space." She mumbled while jumping on one foot and pulling on her pants at the same time. 

"This makes no sense." I started to get impatient. "One evening you say you love me, the next you are flying out of here like I'm some kind of disease."

"You know I am far from stable." She throws me a crocked yet frustrated smile. "And I don't think you are a disease. But you are so confident that you sometimes forget that I'm not like you."

"What?" I asked frustrated. "What does that have to do with why you are running away? We should be able to at least talk about this."

She stopped in her tracks, meaning she was wearing on one sock while holding the other. She slowly turned around, finally meeting my eyes.

The insecure girlfriend's POV

I looked at him and finally saw his distressed face. I'd heard his voice break and knew he was taking this harder than I thought. It was one thing for me to assume he did not consider how I was feeling, but I shouldn't treat him the same.  Certainly not when he seemed willing to try and understand what was going on with my tumbling storm of emotions. 

Sighing, I moved back to the bed and took a seat while pulling on my other sock. 

"Alright," I said, folding my hands between my knees. "Let's talk."

"Thank you." He said kind of sarcastically. "Finally."

I didn't respond but sat quietly trying to gather my thoughts. 

"What's going on?" He said quietly when it became apparent I wasn't going to say anything unless prompted. "Why were you going to rush out of here faster than after our first night together?"

"It's just..." I tried to start, struggling to find the words that would describe my first moment of blinding white panic. "I love you." 

"That's not a bad thing you know." He replied, his voice varying between offended and curios. 

"No," I replied, choking back tears. "Yet it is." I pushed my hair behind my ear while moving my legs back and forth. "I love you. That means I'm yours. To break, to cast aside. And I'm defenseless." 

"But I wouldnt-" he started "I love you too."

"Yes." I allowed myself to smile briefly at the beautiful daydream. "But for how long." It wasn't a question.

"This could be applied to both of us. I'm yours just as much." He moved to sit down next to me. "You have the power to break me as well."

"No, I mean maybe." I struggled to explain. "But I would never."

"You don't know that for sure." He said. 

"But -" I started but he carried on.

"You might decide one day you want someone smarter. Someone who doesn't have a messed up family. Someone less invested. Someone who knows how to do his own laundry."

I frowned up at him. "You don't know how to do your laundry?"

"Well, maybe, I have just never had a chance to find out I guess. But that's beside the point." He took my hand. "We are going to find out so many small details about each other that we are not gonna love, but that doesn't mean I'm going to love you any less. I'm just going have to talk through the things we can change, and grow to accept those that we cannot." He pulled me into a hug as I started crying. "I knew exactly what you were thinking when you had your mini-breakdown because I had the same thoughts when I first realized I loved you."

"But you are you." I hiccuped. "And I'm just me."

"And that's all I need you to be because you are the one I love. And for love to last, we have to work for it. Everything is not going to be perfect from now on. And no matter what you think, I'm not perfect. But that's why it's important we can talk through these issues. So please, I beg of you, if you have a concern, talk to me. Together we can work through it."

"I really do love you." I sigh while leaning closer and wrapping my arms around him. "and yes, you can be a bit controlling..."

"I said invested." he pulled a face.

"... but your family is lovely. wait until you meet mine."

His face transformed into a huge smile.

"So I'll get to meet your family then?"

The Perfect Boyfriend's POV

I should tell her about my halfsister. 

Arthurs note:

I know. This chapter is so short. But I finally have a bit of free time so I wanted to post this before I got busy again.