Two weeks later...
Drake rang the doorbell and waited for a moment before it was opened, revealing his sister on the other side. She stepped aside and allowed him to walk in before closing the door and watching as he greeted his daughters who ran right into his arms, allowing him to pick them both up.
"Hey beautiful girls," he said and placed a kiss on both of their temples. "I missed you both today. Did you have fun with your mommy?" he asked and they both nodded enthusiastically. "Good." He looked up at Courtne who was giving him a look that he knew all too well.
"Put them down we have plenty to talk about. And I'm not taking no for an answer," She said and he clenched his jaw.
"I don't have the time nor energy for this. It's the exact reason we didn't drop them off at mom's. I don't want to hear it Court," he said back, being clear that he wasn't at all in the mood for a lecture.
"I don't care what you do or don't want because right now it seems neither of you know what you want. So like I said, out them down, we have plenty to talk about,"
He did as she had asked and let the girls run off to continue playing with their cousin as he walked into the kitchen and took a seat by the island, letting her have the first word being he had nothing to say.
"I need to know from your perspective what happened because I have never seen this kind of arrangement in my life. You're passing the girls to each other through family members because you don't wanna see each other, what's going on?" She asked him.
He was silent for a while, and she was willing to let him throw his tantrum because eventually she would get her answer. And eventually she did.
"She said she wants space," was all given before returning to his state of silence.
"And you gave it to her?" She asked and he shrugged. "Did you ask her why?"
"She said she wanted space,"
"Aubrey," she said sternly, not in the mood to go in circles with him.
"I said I don't want to talk about this," he gave back.
"Did you or did you not ask her why she wanted space?" She asked him one last time.
"Clarity. She wants to achieve clarity." He sighed and took off his band and played with it as he spoke. "She's been distant and I think she needs the space. Marriage is about compromise,"
"If I hear you say that sentence one more time-" she started and he was quick to cut her off.
"Am I wrong?" He asked. "When we both went for what we wanted, we very rarely got through any disagreement without a fight. And if I remember correctly that was how we ended up in a very similar predicament last time. So I don't know, nor do I care how everyone else feels because you're all the same people who drilled it into my head that marriage is about compromise and now it's the cause of another problem. I can't win,"
It was silent for a moment. "She thinks you've changed."
"I've changed?" he asked with furrowed brows, clearly in disagreement.
"She thinks you're not the person she married. She feels you've lost the fight you had within you when you first got together. Almost like marrying her was you putting her on a leash and because you are now together by binding contact, you don't feel the need to put up any fight for her anymore," she explained to him and he didn't respond. "Not to say her way of dealing with it is right, but I can see where she's coming from, you've backed down a lot Aubrey,"
He clenched his jaw and continued with fiddle with the ring as it sat on the counter.
"I remember when we were younger you used to say you were willing to have an entire soccer team of children until you got a boy, and now you're not even going to argue your case for one. You're content." She watched as his focus remained on the ring but she was happy knowing he was absorbing her words. "Your wife told you she wanted space and you gave it to her. You didn't even fight for her to stay, you literally just said okay..."
