Electric Impulse: A Bond UnBreakable

Prologue - Must Read!!!

Full-throated, belly squeezing laughter overpowers the comedy playing on the flat screen in my living room. "Troy!" I throw a kernel of popcorn at his laughing face. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"...citrus fruit should stay in the kitchen. It has no business in the bedroom."

...We both bust out laughing.

Troy grabs a handful of popcorn from the bowl in my lap...

...Now, where's the hot sauce?" ...He licks his lips...

...I return to the couch. "You're serious about your sauce, huh?"

He chuckles as he douses the entire bowl with it.

I snicker at his childlike eagerness.

What does the future hold? What will life look like with you?

I rub my belly and sigh.

____________________

—The doorbell rings!

Troy looks up. "Want me to get that?"

"Why not? Let the man work for the woman for a change, right?" I put my feet up on the coffee table and hands behind my head, mimicking an entitled 1950s husband.

Troy chuckles as he opens the door.

"Aria," a voice from the porch calls to me.

Startled, I get up and let Troy know, "I got it."

Troy steps away and returns to the couch leaving the door open. He seems lost in thought as he sits down and grabs the popcorn bowl.

I walk to the door.

Phoenix stands there for a moment staring at me with soft eyes.

I don't plan on being outside long, so I grab a shawl before bracing myself against the brisk November night air as I step outside onto the porch. I close the door behind me. As soon as we're alone, everything comes flooding back. The pain, the loss, the love all mingled into an undecipherable ball of emotion. But resonating more loudly than all the other emotions in this ugly-beautiful symphony is the fact that despite everything, I miss him. My heart is drunk in the sadness of our last moment together and it's almost unbearable standing face to face, here and now.

He swallows. "You've got company."

"Yes and? You decided you wanted out, remember?" I bite back against the bitterness of those words.

"I tried calling but I know why you haven't answered. I'm truly sorry for what I put you through and if you ever give me another chance, I'll never, ever hurt you like that again." He looks for some reassurance.

I stand there, wrapped in the shawl, as indifferent as a garden statue.

He moves in closer to me. "You know, right before I walked out, you asked me a question. You asked me what I was gonna do." Standing in a navy thermal shirt and no jacket, he shivers against the cold as he tucks his hands in his dark-wash jeans.

"Yes — I'm keeping her," I tell him defiantly.

He comes closer to me. "This is a choice we should make together, as a couple."

"She deserves a chance too —" I argue.

"The real question is —"

"I don't care."

"— what are we gonna do, Ari?"

"I'm doing this," I draw invisible circles around my belly, "with or without you, Phoenix. My mind's made up."