Those Three Words

by Alexis Winter

“Hey, I’m not saying guys with good hands are gentlemen or chivalrous. They just know how to fuck.” She winks. “Oh, and they know how to fuck your life up too so be careful.”

“Oh, and Miss Silver.” He turns back to face me, slowly pulling his hand out of his pocket and rubbing his chin with an almost undetectable wink. “Let’s keep the orgies to a minimum.”

Finally, I lean my head down till my lips are barely brushing her ear and I say in a calm but strangled voice, “Don’t call me that again unless you’re willing to be punished.”

Me: Now that picture is a masterpiece I’d hang in my office. The art museum can have your painting. ;)

“It’s our first date, Miss Silver, and I’d like to remain a gentleman this evening so if you don’t mind, I’ll keep that answer to myself.”

He kisses me hard, painfully. I pull away and cock my hand back, landing a slap square across his jaw. The sound of skin-to-skin contact echoes through the atrium. “You’re not going to use sex to avoid this. I don’t even know who you are anymore. You used me.” He reaches out to me again, but I jerk my hand away. “Margot, please, I—I love you.” I stare at him, his eyes pleading with me but instead of elation, I feel nothing.

I have to be happy with myself or I’ll never truly find happiness.

“I want to marry you. I want you to be my wife. I don’t want you to move out, unless it’s moving out of your room and into mine. I want us to both build a life together and memories with Eleanor.”

“You’re good for me. You remind of the value in life and love. You make me a better man. I don’t say all this to pressure you or scare you. I’m not asking and I don’t need an answer. I’m just being honest. I love you, Margot Silver, with every fiber of my being.”