Then I pulled two suitcases out of the closet.
I put them by the kitchen table.
Mihai came down by seven.
— Good morning…
It was stopping.
His eyes fell on the suitcases.
Then on the documents on the table.
What’s this?
I continued my coffee.
I’m getting informed.
About what?
“About what happens if our relationship doesn’t work anymore and everyone wants to be able to leave without the “circulation of a divorce.”
The color was missing from his cheeks.
Laura, what the hell?
These are your words.
There was a discussion about marriage.
I know.
I pushed a sheet at him.
And you helped me understand something.
What?
“That for ten years I treated our relationship as a marriage, and you treated it as an arrangement that you want to be able to get out of.
I didn’t say that!
I looked at him.
You said that.
Mihai pulled a chair.
So you’re kicking me out?
I didn’t say that. Nor will I make legal decisions by ear. I have a lawyer’s appointment.
His eyes stopped again on the house’s papers.
For the house?
For everything.
But it’s our house.
That’s when I heard the sentence I had never expected to hear so quickly.
“Ours.”
I smiled sadly.
— Interesting.
What?
When we talk about marriage, the papers are just papers. When we talk about the house, suddenly it matters a lot what it says on them.
Mihai cuckoo.
It’s not the same thing.
That’s what I’m trying to explain. For you, formalities are useless only when they offer nothing to you.
He got up.
After ten years, do you really think I want to take advantage of you?
I don’t know what to think.
That hit him harder than if I’d been yelling.
Laura…
I asked you if you wanted to be my husband. You could have said you didn’t believe in marriage. You could’ve explained what scared you. We could have talked.
