The Maia and Ross Diaries

C58 - Stronger

"Do you want to move in with me, Maia?"

It was so sudden, that I let the one of many pancakes that he made me slip back on to the plate, from the fork. There was a catch, which I wasn't expecting. I forced myself to smile in surprise, as I knew the question would come up one day. Today was that day...Do you want to move in with me, Maia ... "What?" The day after my birthday, my room was stacked with gifts, pictures stuck onto the wall from Hailey's camera after she printed them. It was perfect. But there's a catch. But was this really a catch? More like a peace offering, I probably couldn't take.

Ross shot me a half smile. I looked back at the table filled with his breakfast, rolling my eyes. "That's what this all was?"

He was on the other side of the kitchen table smirking. "I should've got my own place a long time ago, and now that I have, I want you to be with me. We're both... old" He laughed, "I'll even get one of those j-j-obs..."

Ha, adorable. "Do you know how hard it will be to just drop everything and move in together, little boy?"

"Maia" He started. "It's me and you babe. I love you."

I contemplated. So suddenly, I knew I'd be saying yes by the end of the conversation so it was no use bringing up to many reasons why or why not. I'd be leaving my family, which I wouldn't think twice about doing just last year... But now Stormie was gone and there was no source to hold the family together, if I just decided to vanish. "I haven't even seen the house."

"I'll take you to see it tomorrow. It's a good start." He said, meaning it was small and ugly... Ewh, no... And moving in with Ross? Ross and I waking up to each other every day, settling in... He wanted to settle in with me... I thought I'd always be the one begging my husband to move in with me, or something.

For a whole summer, Ross and I couldn't be split. But I wasn't thinking about when we are actually in together. The challenges...finance, work, and jobs... High school was really my job alone. until I remembered graduation was in another month. "I don't know." I looked around the house.

He nodded. "I thought you'd be all narcissistic about this, so just think about it."

"What about Rowan? Hailey's a tenth grader, and dad is locked up in his room. You're the only one who pretty much stays here to take care of him... you can't do that somewhat-hours-away."

"Rowan can be our plus one." He flashed his smile toward me.

I started thinking that we could raise him like our own. Little Rowan, Ross and Maia's little kid... ok that kind of felt good. "Why do you make everything sound so easy?" I asked him.

"Because it's not that hard, as long as we don't get evicted." He walked over to me smiling... Ross and Maia, Maia and Ross... I wasn't just moving in with anybody, I could realize that right away. But leaving this place would be a hard decision. My nineteen years, of the same thing finally about to change?... "We can make it work."

"If the house is ugly, then no..." I told him as he sat next to me. He was in his t shirt that read "Annoying you is one of my many talents" and long blue pajamas. It felt like we we're already a married couple, in our pajamas, failing or exceeding at breakfast. He snickered running his hand through my hair.

His lips eventually found mine, and I thought about who I might've been moving in with. It's him! In a matter of minutes, I was on his lap making out to the smell of pancakes. His lips we're always comfortable, and the day after my birthday was supposed to be comfortable. Never thought a guy would be my comfortable, but he is.