The Truth About Ever After (11 page)

“I
think that’s a good idea,” he said. He ran his hand along the granite counters
and frowned. “What’s the asking price, anyhow? I mean
,
this is a pretty swanky neighborhood.”

“Um,
let me look,” I said, stalling. I knew exactly what the asking price was, but I
was in no hurry to tell him when he had already reacted so badly to the bedroom
thing. Clearly he was not in a good mental place about this house and knowing
how much it cost would probably only—

I
was too late. Eric grabbed the fact sheet off the dining room table a second
before I could pick it up.

He
didn’t say anything for a moment, just stared down at the paper. Finally he
looked up at me, and I knew my fun day of
house-hunting
was over before it began. “Nine hundred thousand?” he asked, his voice icy.

“Is
it?” I asked, trying to laugh. “Well, in this market I’m sure we could get it a
lot cheaper than—”

“Kiki,”
Eric said. “What did you tell her our budget was?”

“Um,
I don’t remember,” I said. “I don’t know if I actually gave her a set budget.”

“All
right, that’s it,” he said, laying the sheet back on the table carefully. I had
a feeling he was doing his best to keep his temper in check. “We’re going home.
We obviously need to have a long talk before we see any more houses.”

“But
Eric, she has five more lined up for us!”

“And
I’m going to assume that all five of them are along these same lines,” he said,
gesturing around the room as if to encompass the whole house, five bedrooms and
all. “Which means it’s a waste of time. We are not spending nearly a million
dollars on a house. God, even
saying
that number sounds ridiculous!”

“Eric,
will you please lower your vice,” I said looking over my shoulder. “She’ll hear
you!”

“Kiki,
I couldn’t care less if she hears me. I’m going to wait in the car. Please tell
her we’re done for the day.”

And
without another word, he stalked out of the house, leaving me alone in the
kitchen. A moment later, I heard the front door shut—luckily, he had the
manners not to slam it. I sighed, and headed upstairs, trying to think of some
excuse to give Jen’s mom.

Eric
didn’t say much to me on the way home, but I could tell he was really angry. It
scared me a little, only because it was so rare. Eric was always known as the
laid-back one, the guy with the easy personality. Everyone always said it’s the
reason we worked so well together—he tempered my over-excitement and I
brought him out of his shell. When he did lose his temper, you knew he was really,
really mad.

Once
we were back in the condo, he went straight to the kitchen to grab a beer. I
followed him, feeling timid, and perched myself on one of the bar stools at the
island.

“I’m
sorry,” I finally said. “We should have talked about a budget first.”

“You’re
right,” he said, his voice tight. “We should have.” He was quiet for a moment.
“Kiki, were you planning to let your father buy us a house?”

“No!”
I said, feeling offended. I would never do something like that without talking
to him.

“Then
where was the nine hundred thousand dollars
gonna
come from?”

I
squirmed on my seat. “Uh, I guess from my account.”

“Your
trust fund?”

I
nodded, watching him closely. He sighed, and closed his eyes.

“What’s
wrong with that?” I asked. “
Eric, that
money is for
me, for my future. How does this family not fall under that?”

“You
should have talked to me about it,” he said. “I don’t want to start our family
life in a house you paid for alone.”

“Why?
That makes no sense. When we got married we said what was mine was yours, and
vice versa. That’s why we have the joint account.”

“Yeah,
which does not include your trust fund.”

I
frowned. He was right about that; my trust from my parents was in a separate
account, at least the part of it that I had access to right now.

“Kiki,
we made that joint account with the intention of using it for our household
stuff, our family stuff. That’s why we both have our pay put there. That
account is what we’re supposed to use to pay for things for this family.”

“I
know,” I said quietly. “I guess I just figured buying a house would fall under
the bigger picture category. And isn’t that what my trust is for?”

“Kiki,
when you said you wanted a house I assumed we were going to use our
savings—our joint savings—for a down payment and then get a
mortgage for the rest. That’s what people do.”

I
tried very hard not to roll my eyes. “Eric. Why on earth would we spend tens of
thousands of dollars on interest for a mortgage that we don’t need?”

He
was quiet for a moment, clearly struggling with this.

“You
knew I had this money, Eric,” I continued, my voice soft. “You knew it when we
got married, and it never bothered you.”

“Of
course it did.” He laughed once, a dry, humorless laugh, and I stared at him.

“What?”

“Kiki,
of course it bothered me.
You’re loaded
,
your parents are loaded
. It’s completely unlike anything
I’ve ever experienced. It took me a while to be okay with it.”

“How
are you just telling me this now?” I whispered, feeling almost like he had
slapped me. “We’ve been married for three years.”

“
Kiks
, no,” he said, catching sight of my face. He came
around the breakfast bar and took me in his arms. “I meant when we started
dating.
Way back at the beginning.
Not once things got
serious.”

I
still felt shaky. “You should have told me this before.”

“We
had just started seeing each other,” he said, shrugging. “It seemed like a
weird thing to bring up. Besides, by the time we got serious I had come to
terms with it.”

“But
why is it a big deal now?” I asked, feeling like I wanted to cry. At that
moment, I hated the fact that I had a trust fund. All that the money had ever
done was cause people to treat me differently. It had always been that way.

“Maybe
because you just tried to buy a nine hundred thousand dollar house without
talking to me about it?” He looked down at me, the humor now returned to his
face, and I felt a jolt of relief. He wasn’t angry anymore.

“I’m
sorry,” I said. “I should have talked about it with you. I just got…”

“Excited?”
he asked. “Whoever would have thought it, from you.” He grinned at me, to show
he was teasing, and I smiled back.

“Can
we just forget about the house for now?” he asked. “Kiki, we have this great condo,
which, due to the kindness of your parents, we don’t have to pay rent for.
Which gives us the perfect opportunity to start saving for a down payment.” He
paused and his face turned serious. “For a much more reasonable amount of
money.”

“Okay,”
I said. “We can forget about the house for now. But I’m not giving up on the
idea of using the trust for it, Eric. There’s just no reason to pay interest
when we don’t have to.”

“It’s
a good point. Can we table it for now?” He leaned down and kissed me, pulling
me flush against his body. “There’s something else I’d rather be doing right
now.”

“Oh?”
I asked, my heart rate increasing. “What’s that?” He kissed me again, harder
this time. “Oh,” I whispered. “That.”

Suddenly,
Eric swept me up in his arms, causing me to squeal. “You know,” he said,
carrying me down the hall toward our bedroom. “There’s one bad thing about us never
really fighting.”

“What’s
that?” I asked, breathless.

He
grinned, and tossed me on the bed, making me laugh. “Not nearly enough make-up
sex.”

Chapter Eleven

I
knew I got pregnant that night—I just knew it. I told Eric of my
premonition but he simply rolled his eyes. “Whatever you say, babe.”

I
decided to drop it, but I didn’t doubt myself, not even for a minute. I
immediately went out and bought a pregnancy test, leaving it in my underwear
drawer, ready for use as soon as I missed my period.

And,
just as I expected, two weeks later, I did. The box said I could take the test
the first day after a missed period, but I somehow managed to hold out for an
entire week—I really wanted to be sure before I told Eric. Finally, on a
Saturday morning in January, I woke up early, leaving Eric sleeping in bed, and
headed into the bathroom, ready to have my suspicion confirmed.

Five
minutes later, I ran back into the bedroom, jumping on the bed next to Eric. He
mumbled in his sleep and rolled over, but I would not be deterred. “Eric,” I
whispered, leaning over him. “Wake up, baby.”

“Kiki,”
he groaned. “What time is it?”

“Doesn’t
matter,” I said, lining soft kisses across his jaw. “Come on, babe, wake up.”

He
finally opened his eyes, looking at me blearily. “Morning,” he mumbled before
closing his eyes again.

“Morning,
Papa,” I said, kissing him one more time. I sat up on my knees, waiting for my
words to sink in. It didn’t take long.

“What
did you say?” he asked, his eyes snapping open.

I
grinned.
A face-splitting, uncontrollable grin.
“I
said good morning,
Papa
.”

“Kiki,”
he whispered. “What are…are you—?”

“I’m
pregnant!” I squealed, grabbing his hands. “I just took a test; we’re having a
baby!”

Eric
just stared at me for a moment. Suddenly he sat up straight, pulling me into
his lap and burying his face in my shoulder. I laughed gleefully at his
reaction. “Are you happy?”

He
lifted his head and looked right at me, holding my face with both his hands.
“Of course I’m happy,” he said, his
face alight
. “Oh
my God, Kiki. Is this for real?”

I
felt like my heart was going to burst with happiness. “It’s real,” I whispered,
feeling my eyes start to fill with tears—the happiest tears I’d ever
known. “We’re having a baby.”

***

Eric
and I decided to wait a while before telling people. I was only just pregnant,
and it seemed prudent to at least get a few weeks under my belt before we
shared the news. In theory, it was smart. In practice, it was much harder.

“I
told my mom,” I said to Eric the next day. I had gone out shopping with my
mother that morning and I couldn’t help myself—I’d told her within
minutes of getting in the car. Her reaction had been priceless, crying and
laughing and screaming at the same time.
This from a woman
who made a career of being in control of herself at all times.

Eric
snorted. “I fully expected you to,” he said, taking my sweater and kissing me.
“Was she happy?”

“Very,”
I told him, slipping out of my shoes and smiling. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen
her like that.”

“Come
and sit down,” Eric said. “I’ll get you some tea.”

I
managed not to roll my eyes at his retreating back. Since I had told him the
news yesterday Eric had been treating me like I was a highly breakable doll. He
had been following me around the house, asking me if I needed anything, and had
insisted I sit with my feet up for most of the previous evening. It was cute
that he was so concerned—but I knew I was going to have to put a stop to
it soon. No way could I take nine months of this.

I
flopped down on the couch. It did feel good to sit. One thing I was noticing
was that my feet were getting sore a lot quicker. I wasn’t sure if this was
really a pregnancy symptom (did you even have symptoms at this stage?) or if it
was in my head. I wondered if I was going to have to start wearing flat shoes
soon. I hoped not.

“So,
what’d you guys shop for?” Eric asked, handing me a warm mug of tea and sitting
beside me, pulling my feet up into his lap.

I
ducked my head a little, and Eric laughed. “Let me guess: baby stuff?”

“We
couldn’t help it!” I said, laughing. “We were so excited!”

“Did
you buy anything?”

“No,
we actually spent most of our time looking at nursery stuff.”

“Nursery
stuff, eh? Like cribs?”

I
felt a surge of excitement. “Cribs, and changing tables, and the sweetest
bedding. Oh, Eric, I can’t wait to pick out a theme and colors. Do you think we
should find out the sex of the baby? I mean
,
it would
be so fun to be surprised. But for all the planning, oh, it would be nice to
know. Because I don’t really like yellow, and they had the cutest girl
stuff—”

“Kiki,”
Eric said, grabbing my hands. “Chill, babe. We have plenty of time to talk
about all of that.”

I
sighed and leaned back into the cushions. “I know,” I said. “It’s just so
exciting.”

“You’re
right,” he said, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear. “It’s very exciting.
But I don’t want you to getting too worked up. You’re supposed to be taking it
easy, you know?”