Commitment: The Beauty in Between (A Beautiful Series Novella) Read Online Free Page B

David. People talk like
it’s just a piece of paper, but it’s not. It’s an institution.”
    “Yeah, a mental one,” Alex laughs and my mum joins in.
    I shake my head disbelievingly. “I can’t believe you two.
What is wrong with getting married? I don’t want to own her. I love her and I want
to be legally joined with her for the rest of my life. I don’t see what’s wrong
with that. “
    My mum reaches across the table and pats my hand. “There’s
nothing wrong with it honey. But you both have to want it for the same reasons.
Go home and talk to her. Give her time to explain instead of stomping off in a
huff.”

Katrina
    When I hear the lock turn in the door, I stand immediately.
He’s home.
    “You came back,” I say.
    “Of course I came back,” he tells me, dropping his keys on
the hall table.
    “Can we talk?” I ask. He nods his response and I incline my
head toward the couch. He comes and sits beside me. “Did you go to your mums?”
    “Yeah. I needed someone to talk to.”
    “You could have stayed and talked to me.”
    “I was too angry. I needed to cool down and make sense of everything.”
    “Fair enough.”
    He’s clearly agitated. He won’t sit back comfortably.
Instead, he’s leaning forward, his elbows on his knees as he bounces his foot
vigorously.
    “Can you just tell me exactly why you don’t want to get
married?” he asks focusing on his hands as he clasps them in the space between
his knees.
    “It’s not even that David. I do want to get married. It’s
just that there’s so much I want to do first. I want to have a career. I want
to make sure we can afford something wonderful. I want it to be special. Not
some slap-dash thing we do because we feel like we have to.
    “And I’m a little scared. Part of the reason I felt so
strange today was because I was freaked out by everyone getting married and
having kids so suddenly. I mean - what if I had stayed with Elliot? Would I be
a stay at home mum by now too? I want to make partner someday David. How am I
going to do that married with kids?”
    “Getting married isn’t going to stop you from making
partner.”
    “Says the man in the relationship. The women who are
partners in my office are well into their forty’s when they get there, and they
either don’t have kids or had them after they made it.”
    “So you want to have kids when you’re forty? What if that’s
too late?”
    “I don’t know. We’ll figure it out. What if we decide we
don’t want kids?”
    “Are you serious? But, we’ve spoken about life with kids
before. I thought we were on the same page.”
    “And what page is that?”
    “Get married, set ourselves up with a house and a solid
career and then have kids.”
    “David. How am I going to plan a wedding, then be a mother and have a solid career?”
    “Plenty of women do it Trina. My own mother did it.”
    “I know she did David. And I admire how she’s always managed
to juggle work and family. But she’s a counsellor David. You know how
competitive our industry is. You work at a much bigger firm than I do. Out of
all the partners, how many are women?”
    “I don’t know. A couple.” I concede. “But Trina, that means
nothing. If you want to make partner you work hard and go for it. Kids or not.
I’m not even interested in being a partner. I couldn’t give a fuck about that.
If you need to work to make it, then I’ll do all the kids’ stuff. We’re a team.
We don’t have to be traditional. Having kids doesn’t mean your career is
finished.”
    “Oh god, why are we arguing about kids? I don’t even know if
I want them!”
    “Seriously? I can’t believe you don’t want kids?!”
    “I don’t know, but I definitely don’t want them yet. We have
to be married first and to do that we need…” I stop speaking. I don’t want to
talk about this anymore.
    He blows out a steady breath and rubs his fingertips across
his temple. “Need what?”
    I shake my head quickly from side to