Robert, Her Billionaire Widower

Chapter 7

Today was an important day. Robert had told Vanessa over the phone that he was ready to start talking about the negative aspect of his relationship with Marie.

Vanessa was very excited indeed. They had spoken, over the past six weeks, almost exclusively about Robert’s good side with Marie and how the two of them had been so good together. Now, finally, Vanessa was going to get something new to write about, something that she could use in her book with a lot more efficacy because everyone wants to read about the bad side as it is simply more exciting.

She readied her note pad and wondered what Robert was going to tell her. She had to admit to herself that she was kind of happy she would be hearing about Robert and Marie’s bad side for another reason as well: she wasn’t going to be jealous. Hearing Robert talk about Marie in such an adoring manner was not very easy for Vanessa. This was, of course, because she wasn’t used to hearing about love in a candid way. She had never really been loved like that in her life, and she had never thought she would ever be loved like that. Hearing Robert speak of such love only served to make her jealous. It only served to make her feel more like she would never be able to find someone who would love her as much as Robert had loved Marie.

There was, of course, another reason and this reason was that Vanessa was so attracted to Robert. She was starting to come to terms with it by now, it had been six weeks after all, but at the end of the day her attraction to him was starting to get so serious that she was unable to contain herself while she was around him. She craved his touch, craved some form of intimacy with him, anything that would make her feel like she was in his inner circle.

She wondered sometimes if this was because she wanted his respect or if she wanted his love. She wondered if there was any difference between the two. At the end of the day, the way things were going, Vanessa was going to start getting quite depressed soon if she had to continue hearing about how wonderful Robert’s relationship with Marie had been, at least in the earlier days. She was starting to feel like everything about their relationship had been utterly perfect, so much so that Vanessa was starting to feel somewhat inadequate.

All in all, she was quite glad that today she was going to get to hear about the bad side of their relationship. She was glad that she was going to get to hear about the things that made Robert and Marie’s relationship normal, the things that had made them like everyone else. It would make that sort of love seem attainable to Vanessa, and that was very important to her right now.

She decided that it would be best to get there early, since Robert seemed anxious to get all of this off of his chest. She got to his place and was pleased to be greeted just as warmly as ever. She sat down opposite him and brought out her notepad.

“So we’ll be discussing some of the negative aspects of my relationship with Marie,” said Robert. “I’m not really sure if I would want this in the book or not because I don’t want it to end up making people think that Marie was in any way not an amazing person but I think telling it to you would help me become a lot more objective about every other aspect of my relationship with my wife. So, I shall start by telling you of the first real fight we had. We lasted quite a while without having a real fight and I am quite surprised by this because most people are not able to do so. This fight occurred well after that first date, after we were married in fact. I’ve already told you about the proposal, about our honeymoon. Now, I think, I will tell you about something else, I will tell you about our first real fight.”

*****

“I got my period,” said Marie, coming out of the bathroom.

“Oh great!” said Robert. He was truly happy. He loved his wife with all his heart but at the same time he simply wasn’t ready for a child right now. A child was a really big responsibility and in order to be able to take care of one he wanted to attain a certain level of maturity that he did not feel like he possessed yet even though he had reached thirty years of age.

Age is a number, after all. At the end of the day, everyone only has one childhood, and he did not want his child to have a childhood that was bad in any way whatsoever. He wanted his child to be completely and utterly happy, which was why he was so adamant on being ready for the child before getting pregnant

“Wow,” said Marie, “you really don’t want kids, do you?”

Robert was taken aback. Marie’s tone was rather harsh, as if she was annoyed by him. She had gotten annoyed by him before, this was nothing new, but Robert was surprised that she had gotten annoyed by this fact.

“It’s not like that,” said Robert. “Of course I want kids, I want a family. But at the end of the day, I don’t think I’m ready to be a father right now.”

“You’re thirty years old!” said Marie. “What on earth do you mean you’re not ready to be a father? If you’re not ready at thirty then when will you possibly be ready? When you’re so old that your sperm won’t be viable anymore?”

“Come on,” said Robert, “I think you would agree with the fact that I am not ready to have a child right now. I don’t think you’re ready either, Marie.”

“What?” said Marie. “What do you mean I’m not ready? Do you think I won’t be a good mother to the child?”

“That’s not it at all,” said Robert. “I just… I have my company, you have your writing. It would become difficult to focus on these things if I have to think about a child, you know. It would become difficult to think about work if you are pregnant at home, I’d just want to come home and take care of you. I’d be worried all the time, I’d be calling you constantly and at the end of the day I can’t really afford to do that because I need to get a lot of work done during the day. It would impact your writing too, you know.”

“How would it impact my writing?” asked Marie. “All I need to do is sit down with a laptop. I don’t even need to get out of bed to write. I have no idea what you are talking about.”