I Wish I Loved You

21: Ooh, Do We Have...

I looked down at my ring finger and reluctantly replied, "No... I just- um, I just took it off, it's in the room."

He must've heard in my tone that I didn't want to talk about it, because he didn't say anything else. I saw the hurt in his eyes though, the silent war inside himself. Like a can of worms ready to be open; the only silent argument I'd ever remembered experiencing.

In fact, we never really talked about it. Tyler just glanced at my hand everyday, like he hoped that one day our promise to each other would be back there. Exactly where it belonged.

•

•

•

"Ugh," I whined, "I'm so sleepy!

Tyler looked over at me and smirked, " Go to sleep then, you are literally already laying in the bed."

"And hungry," I continued, "and I have to pee too, why do your babies hate me?"

"I'm sure they don't." He placed a kiss on my forehead and got up from beside me. We'd been watching TV together for a while.

"No, Ty, don't leave me."

"Now who's gonna feed you if I just sit around?"

"I don't know, I just don't want you to leave; it's cold. You know what, never mind, I'm not hungry."

"Lies."

"You're right, it's actually pretty hot and I'm dying of starvation."

"I'm sure that's also untrue, but I won't hold it against you." He gave me another light kiss, on the lips this time, before standing straight and starting to leave.

"No, wait," I grabbed the hem of his shirt, "help me up; I wanna come."

"No, baby, you know that Dr. Lovett put you on bed rest, and you were just complaining about your back hurting."

"First of all, she put me in general bed rest, which, for pregnant women, is pretty much just house arrest for short periods of time. And, I think my back was only getting better because you were next to me. Ooh, yeah, see? I feel the pain coming on."

"Oh, really?"

"Yep, look," I grabbed his hand, "oh, so much better."

"... You better be glad your so pretty, because you are at terrible actor."

"I'm better than you... now help me up."

"No."

"I don't have the energy to whine, okay? Now, just for future reference, when the woman you're sleeping with asks you for something, you almost always say yes."

"Thank you for that little piece of knowledge, babe, but... I'm gonna stick with no." I groaned.

"Tyler, come on, I said I don't wanna to whine about it, but I will. I feel a beached whale."

He chuckled, "A beached whale? That's a new one."

"Can you please just help me up, so I feel less like shit?" I rolled my eyes and reached out my hand for him to grab.

Wordlessly, he grabbed it and helped me sit up. He was helping me stand when I felt some sort of pain shoot through me.

"Whoa, wait," I said. Bracing his arm, I used it to lower myself back onto the bed. I used my other hand to rub my stomach, almost as a way to make sure it was still there.

"Angel, what's wrong? See, this is why you're on bed rest." I could tell he was just worried, but it came out sounding like anger.

"General bed rest," I mumbled.