Free Better Together by Sheila O'Flanagan

that’s taking things to a whole new level, isn’t it?’
    ‘And that bothers you?’
    ‘It’s a lot to think about right away,’ said Griff. Suddenly his eyes lit up. ‘I know you’re under pressure to get someone, though. What about Eithne? Last time we spoke, she said something about the landlord needing vacant possession of her flat soon. Hey, don’t you think that’d be perfect?’
    Sheridan scrunched the napkin into a ball. Eithne was the eldest of Griff’s five sisters. And the gabbiest.
    ‘I’m not so sure that would work out,’ she said.
    ‘It was just a thought,’ he told her. ‘Etty is great company, very easy to get on with.’
    The idea of having Griff’s sisters in both his house and her apartment, keeping an eye on them, was too freaky for her to even contemplate. It should have been freaky for him too.
    ‘OK, so not Eithne,’ he said when she remained silent. ‘We’ll think of someone.’
    ‘But not you.’
    ‘No. That doesn’t matter, though, does it?’ He covered her hand with his again. ‘We’re still grand the way we are, aren’t we?’
    Would she be turning into a stereotypical girl if she yelled at him that she’d asked him to move in with her and he’d said no, and so by no stretch of the imagination could she possibly think things were all right? After all, he’d told her that she thought like a man. He wasn’t the only person to have ever said that to her, although it was the first time for him. There was no reason to get emotional over something that he was regarding as practical. Was there?
    ‘I think we’re fine as friends,’ she told him finally.
    ‘I knew you’d see it like that.’
    ‘It’s just . . .’
    ‘What?’
    ‘Well, if we’re going out together on dates, not just as friends, but we don’t want to be in a relationship – well, where’s it all leading?’
    ‘Does it have to be leading anywhere?’
    She hadn’t thought so before. At least, not consciously. But she was thinking about it now. He loved her, he liked sleeping with her, but he didn’t want to move in with her. That sounded like a problem to her, even if he imagined it was a perfect arrangement. She was obviously less like a man than he thought. Damn it, she thought, if it hadn’t been for the trouble at the
Scope
, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. And I’d be perfectly happy to think that he might come back to Kilmainham tonight but go home in the morning. As it is . . .
    ‘Hey, you’re just a bit upset because of your job. I understand that.’
    ‘It’s more than my job,’ she told him.
    ‘Why?’
    ‘Why d’you think?’ She felt herself suddenly losing her composure. ‘You don’t want to live with me. You don’t love me enough. But you’re OK sleeping with me whenever you feel like it. You’re happy with things the way they are, but you know what, Griff, it makes me feel a bit like . . . like your plaything.’
    ‘You know that’s not true.’ He looked bewildered. ‘I wouldn’t dream of regarding you as a plaything. Besides, I thought you liked how things between us were too. You did until yesterday.’
    ‘I lost my job yesterday and I had to do a bit of thinking,and I thought that maybe we were in the sort of place that you’d
want
to live with me. I know it’s Talia’s suggestion, but it matters to me too. I wanted you to move in with me because we’ve being going out for ages and it seems to me, that being the case, that moving in might be a next step. But I was wrong.’
    ‘You sound just like Gemma when she’s having a row with Jerry. All kind of incoherent and emotional and . . . and . . . like a girl.’
    ‘Because I
am
a girl! And I’m not incoherent. I’m making a valid point.’
    ‘What do you want from me?’
    She sat back in her seat. She hadn’t thought it through. But she did now. The logical consequence of them living together was, perhaps, to eventually get married. Or have children. Children weren’t on her radar yet.