“Wait, I fucked up because I lied about who I was. How did you? She knew who you were? What did you have to hide?”
“I had nothing to hide. In fact everything between the two of us was going great,” Rex said.
“What was the problem?”
“I said some things to her. I was mean, and I was angry. I was also terrified, but I didn’t realize that until much later. I said some things that I shouldn’t have.” He didn’t mention anything about her being a virgin, or that she hadn’t thought about protection. They had both made mistakes, and what surprised him was that Nora had owned up to her own. He couldn’t have her being the only adult in their relationship. He had his faults as well. He was over twenty years her senior. He should have known. The problem he had was that he finally got to claim her as his own. Nora was his weakness, and he saw that now more than ever.
That moment when he first saw her, he’d wanted her. He’d curbed that desire, and fucked out his frustration in other women. When she finally was close every single day, he hadn’t been able to handle it, lashing out at her as if it was her fault. She didn’t have a clue that he’d wanted her, or Frank’s protection of her.
“You’re going to be a dad?”
“I’m going to be a father. Kind of weird, huh? So long I’ve been alone.”
“What’s going on now between you and Nora?” Alaric asked.
“I’m making up my horrible behavior toward her. I want to prove to her that not only will I be a good husband, I will be an amazing father.”
“Husband?”
“I’m going to ask her to marry me, on Valentine’s Day.”
“Really?”
Rex nodded. “Super romantic, right?”
“Also very clichéd.”
“I want to do the whole cliché thing. I want to give Nora everything she has ever wanted. Romance, love, you name it, it’s hers.”
“Does she even love you? Has she said it?”
Rex sighed. “No. She hasn’t said it.”
“What if everything you’re doing and she doesn’t love you?” Alaric asked.
“Either way, I love her, and I’m going to prove it to her, and show her. I don’t care what she feels for me. I know what I feel for her.” And deep down, he knew she felt something for him. “I’m going to make her fall in love with me.”
“Do you even think it’s possible?” Alaric asked.
“What?”
“Getting a woman to fall in love with you.”
“It happens every single day. People fall in and out of love all the time. I’m going to make Nora fall in love with me, and stay in love with me.”
“You’re pretty determined.”
Rex glared at his friend. “What’s to say your girl doesn’t hate you?”
“Oh, she does, believe me. She loves me even more. It’s the only reason I’ve hurt her so much. She wants to hate me because she loves me so much.”
“That is twisted, messed up logic.”
“Look at us. We’re two old men sitting around talking about our much younger women and how we’re going to get us to fall in love with us. Now that is messed up. We’ve got twenty years on those two women, and yet we can’t even figure out how to win them back.”
Rex hummed as he sat back. “Well, my friend, we are in for some rocky roads that’s for sure.”
“I think you’ve got the worse deal,” Alaric said, finishing off his coffee.
“How do you figure?”
“A marriage proposal by Valentine’s Day. That’s really not going to cut it. You’ve got some serious work to do, my friend.”
Rex ignored him, finished his coffee, and wished Alaric his own good luck. “At the end of the day, I didn’t lie and pretend to be someone different.”
On the way back to the office, he stopped into the toilet to make sure he looked okay. Alaric had made him nervous. Valentine’s Day was not so long away. Buttoning up his jacket, he made his way toward his office, stopping when he saw Nora in their research section. She was standing looking through a book, and he just had to stop to admire her. Frank had decided to put her with Carl, as much as Rex fucking hated it. Carl was a loser, a waste of time, and if he so much as upset Nora, the bastard would answer to him.