Episode 1203: Honesty

“Sure, I’ll just grab our dinner,” Sebastian said.

Ava almost said she had no appetite but maybe it was better to seem relaxed, maybe that would send the message that this didn’t need to be a big deal to convince him he’d blown it all out of proportion that day.

Sebastian set their plates on the table and poured them each a glass of milk, their traditional dinner drink since the beginning of her pregnancy.

“I am starved,” he announced, so evidently he wasn’t that concerned with what she needed to talk to him about.

She didn’t have much hope that his good spirits would last, but maybe she could massage this into not being as terrible as the day he stormed out. She’d take him not storming out on her again as a definite win here.

“So,” he said, after swallowing a bit of mac and cheese, what did you want to talk about? Is it the bookstore? Did you set the dates for your maternity leave? I know that it’s not easy for you to step aside but the staff is world class and we’ll check in, I’ll still take some shifts to see first hand how it’s going. It’ll be fine.”

“This talk isn’t about my maternity leave. I promise I’ll firm up those dates sometime soon. I know you’ve been concerned that I’m just going to give birth on the sales floor and then get right back to work. I can assure you that won’t happen.”

“I’ll be honest, I was kind of starting to think that’s exactly how this whole thing could play out,” Bas admitted with a chuckle. “It’s a relief to hear time off is actually on your radar. Not that I don’t think you can handle anything that comes at you, it’s just maybe at some point a little less on your plate would be a good thing. I just don’t want you to feel overly stressed.”

“That’s kind of what I need to be honest with you about, I have been stressed over something,” she said.

“Okay.” For the first time that dinner, Sebastian’s expression appeared troubled. “What can I do to help?”

“Just listen,” she said. “Just hear me out and don’t react until I have said everything I need to say. And then don’t overreact. It was nothing that day you walked out into the street, and it’s nothing now. I just didn’t get the chance to explain to you that time before you stormed out of the bookstore. I want to explain now though, I need to, I can’t go on keeping this a secret. I should have told you a long time ago. You deserve to know, you deserve to have all the information to make your own judgement.”

Episode 1204: Clumsy