Roomies - The Baby Years

Chapter 2

"Niall, I can explain..." I said as I went into the bathroom where he was drying off our son,

"I would love to hear you explain, but our son just told me that he is tired so I will dry him off and then put him to bed, are you okay with that?" he looked at me with a stern look and I nodded,

"Sure...I'll be in the livingroom." I said and left the upstairs bathroom and went to my own bedroom and got undressed, then dressed in a loose sundress.

I went down to the livingroom and grabbed the towel I had put there and started drying my hair when I eventually heard Niall's steps in the stairs.

I was sitting on the sofa and he came and sat down next to me. He didn't say a word, he was waiting for me to say something.

"Well, explain then?" He said and I looked at him,
"To be honest, there isn't anything to really explain..."
"There isn't anything to... ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! I just found you in a pool, soaking wet in a see through shirt with a man I've never seen in my life before. Which part would you want to discuss first?"
"Eli is just a friend, his daughter and Benji are also really good friends and they slept here last night."
"He slept...here?" he looked at the sofa and stood up, "No Niall, he didn't sleep on the sofa!"
"Oh so he slept in the bed?" he asked and I rolled my eyes,
"No, we didn't sleep. We were awake all night, talking, outside in the garden. Look, I'm not going to fight with you when our son is falling asleep upstairs, and especially since I haven't done anything wrong."
He sat back down but I could feel that he was annoyed, his energy was perfectly clear so even though he wasn't yelling at me, I felt like he was.

"I met him about a while ago at Benjamin's preschool. He is new in town,and his daughter became friends with Benjamin really fast. They are almost inseparable."
"Like you and he was in the pool, you mean?"
"I realize that that must have looked awful, but it meant nothing. We were just playing with the kids." He put his head in his hands and sighed,

"Fuck, Stella... that is not something one wants to see when walking through the door to your own home, don't you realize that?"
"Yes, yes I do but how was I to know you were coming home? You didn't text or call... I didn't know you were coming."
"So that makes it perfectly fine for you to fool around with some other guy? Do you know how many women that has thrown themselves at me each night these last couple of weeks? Dozens! But I haven't ended up in a pool soaking wet with any of them, because I'm fucking engaged... which, just so you know, you are too!"

I rolled my eyes,

"Yeah, I know... I've been engaged for the last 5 years but this is it, this is where it ends."
He looked at me, "What do you mean, ends?"I rolled the ring on my finger and looked at my fiancee, "I mean, I want to be married within the year." Niall looked at the ring on my finger then back at me, "Fine, so we'll get married."
"No I don't want some thrown together wedding, I want a real one. Like the one your mother showed me in one of Clarisse's books." To this day, when I mentioned Clarisse, Niall twinched a bit. I knew he missed her, he probably always would and it was mean of me to bring her name up when I knew what it did to him, but he had just told me that he is basically showered with women each night, and that without blinking so yeah, I was going to use Clarisse.

"You want it all? The planning, the reception, the church, guests, drinks, games...everything?" I looked at him with a stern look and nodded,

"And if it's not done within the year?" He asked and I shrugged my shoulders,
"Then I don't see a future for us. I need you to want me like I want you, to trust me in the way I trust you, with everything I am. If you can't give me your love and your trust, then what is the point of us keeping this up?"
Niall looked at me as if he had seen a ghost. In one way, he looked like a little kid who was confused as to why he didn't get any candy, and in one way he looked as the most grown up man I had ever seen.