Playing House Ch. 01

"Then why not?" He kneeled on the tile behind her, then dropped his hands on her hips while she sat on the edge of the tub. Her hair tumbled down her back, that was all that was facing him now. He breathed it in, a scent of strawberries and cream. The smell made his cock twitch for attention again.

He whispered. "Maybe you're just thinking about it too much. We only got Damien because we weren't thinking, right? Don't you love being his mother?"

At that, she finally looked back at him over her shoulder. Her eyes matched his before looking down. "Of course I do."

"Then what's wrong? Please, tell me."

She bit her lip. "It's...I don't even know if I want another child."

Theo tensed. She didn't say what he was dreading exactly, but it was dangerously close to that sentence that would crush all his hopes. He needed to double down on how he felt.

He tightened his fingers into the soft flesh of her hips, almost possessively. "I told you when we got engaged, that I wanted at least two children. I was clear about that Ver."

"Yeah, I know what you said, I was there." She rolled her eyes painfully. "I know everything that you want Theo. I know you like the back of my hand." She picked up her hand, examining it.

"But it's like...I don't even know my own hands." She dropped the limb. "I never even thought about if I wanted to be a Mom. And I love Damien, don't get me wrong, but—"

"You told me you wanted kids when we got engaged," Theo snapped. She wouldn't make it sound like she hadn't agreed to all of this.

She rubbed her temples. "I know I said that. But it was like that's what everyone expected me to say. Even I expected me to say it. But I never got the chance to think about what I wanted to say. I don't even know that much about myself..."

Her voice dropped with each sentence, until she was mumbling mindlessly to herself. Theo just watched his wife for a moment. A mess of words and shaking hands. Perhaps she'd had more to drink at the party than he thought. Then again, she probably wouldn't have turned him down in the first place if that were the case.

Nonetheless, it sounded like she'd just found yet another way to pivot. If she couldn't push back the day anymore, then she could push back the moment with nonsensical sentences.

It was infuriating.

"You never said any of this before," he snipped. "Maybe you shouldn't be thinking then, if you don't even know what to think."

She shot a hard glare towards him, like she could slice him through with her eyes alone. "Don't think? Wow, you're such a un understanding husband Theo." She reached over and grabbed the handle next to the pouring faucet, twisting it closed with enough force to tear the metal off the hinges. "Nevermind. Just pretend I didn't say anything."

Theo stood from his kneel behind her. He'd never imagined himself looking down on her during their marriage, but his position hovering over her now, still sitting and gripping the lip of the tub, felt strangely appropriate. "Then can we please go back to bed now?"

She let out a long, pained groan, then brought her hands up to pinch the bridge of her nose. "Give me another month, please."

"I've given you months!" he yelled. "Over a year, Ver. It's always later, later. Is it going to be ten years before we have another baby? I'm tired of waiting. We wouldn't even be talking about this right now if Linda had gotten your prescription."

Veronica stiffened. A dark shadow fell over her. Before he could understand why, Theo felt as if he'd just made a misstep.

Ver rose from the tub, clenching her hands at her sides as she turned back to him. "Did you...tell Linda not to get my prescription?"

Now it was Theo's turn to stiffen. For a moment, all he could feel was his cock, which was too turned on for the painful longing to just go away.

His wife knew him too well. And his silence gave him away.

Disgust twisted over her face. "You're fucked up, Theo."

Him? He was the wrong one?

"I'm fucked up?" he spat. Veronica stomped past him and stormed back into the bedroom. He followed her, each step pounding the floor with just as much ferocity. "Me? For wanting to be a father? For expecting what you promised? You don't work, Ver. You don't even watch Damien full-time. We live in this huge god-damn house! Go on vacations more expensive than most people's salaries. I always give you whatever you want!"

"I've never been invested in this relationship for the luxury," she insisted. Frantically, she patted around the bed and nightstand, as if she were looking for something.

"But you have it anyway!" Theo said. "My business lets you live like a queen. Always pampered, always coddled. I saw the luxury your father let you grow up with and I still managed to double it. No, triple it. I don't think I'm asking for that much in return. I want another child, Ver."

"Then why don't you go pick up some slut husband-hunting at the country club?" she sneered back at him. Her entire face flushed with furious red. "Or just one of the girls looking for a rich sugar daddy. Leave me out of your goddamn need-to-be-a-daddy complex."

Theo's heart wanted to rip through his chest. Did she really just say that? As if he would want a child with anyone else.

Rusting though the sheets, she finally found the thin lacy fabric she was looking for. She jumped back into her lacy panties, officially ending any hopes for the night Theo had wanted. As if it weren't already dead.

"I can't be around you right now. I'm going to my mother's," Veronica said. She put her hands up, like she could block him out with just those. Still barefoot, she paced towards the door. The last look Theo got of her was her waves of orange hair, bouncing across her back as she walked away.

Follow her, a voice in Theo's head said. He started towards the door, intending to do just that. But what would he do when he caught up to her? Drag her back? Scream at her some more?

He got to the door, and with what he thought was better judgement, instead slammed it shut. They'd had fights before; she always went to her mother's. She'd be back tomorrow, and they'd finished this conversation whether she wanted to or not.

So instead of following her, Theo stomped back into the bathroom, lifted the toilet seat, grabbed his cock and started pumping hard and fast. He closed his eyes and imagined a night that went exactly as he'd hoped, where he was buried totally in his wet, fertile wife. Though the dream broke the instant he heard the sound of his cum streams hitting the water.

Tomorrow, he thought as he looked at the bathtub, steam rising from the still water. She'll be back tomorrow.

But she hadn't come back the next day. She hadn't come back for three years.

Theo broke out of the memory. Back to the present, where Veronica was sitting kissing distance away from him. He wondered if she were recalling the same memory. Everything about it still hurt for him. Knowing everything that came after made it even more painful.

But what hurt that most, was that he still felt like he'd been in the right.

"I'm not still angry," Veronica said. "But I am more enlightened now. I was confused back then, but now I know what I want." She closed her eyes and took a sure breath, then opened them with a light smile. "I want to be in my son's life again."

Theo paused, waiting for her to finish. Surely that wasn't all she wanted.

She went on. "I know it was selfish to leave, but it was more selfish to be his mother in the auto-pilot way that I was before. I didn't know who I was back then, but I do now, and I'm here to be the Mom he deserves. If all my wandering taught me one thing, it was that I wanted to be his mother."

She hopped up from the settee, and started pacing the carpet. "I know it might be a little jarring for him, going back and forth, and I don't have a place of my own yet. I think I'm going to be staying with Mom right now. But I didn't run through all the money Daddy left me during my trip, so I think I have enough to rent a decent apartment of my own—"

"Stop." Theo's head felt light suddenly. Things weren't clicking, or rather, they were, but not in a way he'd even processed. "You're not staying here?"

She stopped pacing, causing the hem of her white dress to flutter against her smooth legs. "No, of course not—" Her voice cut off as she and Theo locked eyes. "Oh, Theo...I came back for Damien. Not for you."