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“Yeah, I don’t know if I’d want to bring that up either if—”
“Bella.”
She looks up, a smile on her face. “Yes?” she says sweetly.
“I wanted to talk to you about the basement.”
The change is instant. One second, she’s smirking and obviously trying to come up with her next biting, bullshit insult to my sexual abilities. But the second she hears “basement”, her entire body stiffens and her face drains of color as her lips thin.
“It’s fine,” she says woodenly. “I’m over it. I think we’re even, don’t you?”
She forces a smile, like she’s trying to be her normal, snarky self. But the smile barely makes it halfway across her face before it withers.
“It’s not fine,” I growl softly. “I shouldn’t have done that.”
Her face is neutral as she lifts her shoulders again. “Dame, it’s fine. I’m a pain in the ass. I get it.”
I chuckle quietly. “You kinda are.”
“Fuck you!” she chuckles. “You’re supposed to disagree!”
“With my wife?”
She rolls her eyes and we descend into silence.
A nurse comes in a minute later to check my vitals, run some tests, and ask how the catheter shoved up my dick is feeling, which brightens Bella’s mood hugely.
Then the nurse remarks what a “sweet couple” we are and smiles kindly as she asks Bella what her star sign is.
“Chupacabra.”
That ends that conversation.
Bella ends up staying another hour, and all we do is bullshit, joke, and tease each other, until another nurse comes in and lets me know that my parents are here and want to come in to say hi.
“That’s my cue to leave,” Bella says as she collects her stuff and stands.
“I mean, you can stay.”
She shakes her head. “Eh, I’ve honestly run out of insults and need to go write new material anyway.”
She grins at me.
I grin back.
“Bella.”
She stops at the door as she’s leaving and turns back to me, that goddamn infuriatingly magnetic smirk on her face and a mischievous twinkle in her eyes.
“Hmm?”
“I really am sorry,” I say. “About the basement.”
She grows quiet as she sucks on her teeth. Then she smiles. “Thanks,” she murmurs. “But honestly, it’s fine. I’m over it.”
I can tell she’s not.
Not long ago, I wouldn’t have cared if she was past it or not.
