All the Way (Romancing Manhattan 1)

“But.” She presses her fingers to her eyes. “What does this have to do with my condo?”

I frown. “Well, nothing, really. I just figured that if you’re moving in here, there’s no need to have two condos in Manhattan. But if you’d rather keep it and rent it out as an investment property, that’s totally fine. You’ll make a lot of money on it either way.”

“Neither of us needs the money,” she whispers, and clenches her eyes shut.

“Why aren’t you more excited about this?”

She turns and paces away, crosses her arms over her chest, and then turns back to me.

“So, you did all of this without me.”

“Of course.” I shrug. “You’ve been swamped, and I did it so you wouldn’t have to worry about it. I’ll buy the house, and all you’ll have to bring is your toothbrush. Or don’t, I’m sure I can find you a new one.”

“Of course.” She nods and then lets out a humorless laugh. “So let me get this straight. You want me to move in here with you.”

“Yes.”

“Sell my condo, that I bought after I won my first Tony as a gift to myself, by the way, so you can buy a house in L.A. for a film career that I may or may not have?”

“No. Sell or keep the condo, I don’t give a shit. But you will live here. And I want to buy the house because you will have a film career, and we’ll be spending a lot of time in L.A. So we might as well have a house there.”

“Of course.”

“Which one do you like the best?”

She just stares at me for a full ten seconds.

“London, what’s the issue?”

“It’s always the same issue,” she replies. “You’re not considering me. You’re not listening to me.”

“I’m doing nothing but considering you. I’m looking at property in California for you.” Jesus, I can’t do anything right today.

“I didn’t ask you to!” Her voice is louder now, and her eyes are pissed, and I have the distinct feeling that I’ve done something wrong.

“Is this because the house is furnished? Would you rather decorate it yourself?”

“I don’t give two fucks about whether the house is furnished or not,” she counters, and pushes her hands through her hair with frustration.

“I really don’t see what the big deal is.”

“Exactly. You don’t see. You’ve made all of these plans, made some pretty huge decisions, without even consulting with me to find out if that’s what I want.”

“If you don’t want to move in with me—”

“For fucksake, Finn, that’s not what I said.”

I’m so damn lost here.

“Look, if you want to buy property in California, buy it all. I don’t care. We aren’t married, and it’s not my money. Buy Disneyland while you’re at it.”

We aren’t married yet.

Not that right now is the time to propose. She might throw something at me.

“But I don’t know that I’m ready to sell my condo.”

“Okay, so don’t sell it. It’s not like one is dependent on the other.”

She stops to just stare at me.

“You just don’t get it.”

“No,” I immediately admit. “I don’t get it. I thought I was doing a good thing, and now you’re pissed, and I don’t know what I did wrong.”

She sighs and then shrugs. “We should get ready to go.”

“No, you need to explain to me what’s going on in your head because I’m not leaving this house with you angry like this.”

“You make decisions for me,” she says. “I don’t need you to do that. If I wanted a house in L.A., I’d buy one.”

“So I’m a bad guy for wanting to buy you a house?” I stare at her, stunned. “Sweetheart, I don’t know any woman who would have been upset at the idea of me buying them a multimillion-dollar house.”

“I’m not any woman,” she reminds me. “We’ve been through this before. More than once. And if that’s what you want, if that’s the kind of woman that turns you on, we should end this right here and now. Because that’s not me, Finn. I have a voice, and I’ll be goddamned if you’re not going to listen to it.”

“I’m listening to it right now, but it’s not making any sense.”

“This is impossible.”

“No, it’s not.” I catch her arm when she tries to stomp away.

“You’re not listening. You’re so damn stubborn that you’re not listening to me.” She pulls her arm away. “And if we’re going to get to this party on time, we need to get ready.”

“Fuck the party.”

“No.” She scowls at me. “We won’t blow it off. We’re going. You think you can take charge? Well, so can I, and I say we go, make nice all evening, and we will get back to this later. Your mom and brother are good people who love you, and we won’t hurt them by not showing up.”