It had been a strange seventeen hours. Not because awkward events happened but because they were absent. It all felt so normal to Katrina. Like the way it used to be other than the fact that Terrence was staying in the guest room and not the master suite. Aside from sleeping arrangements, she was enjoying his company and help. Cozy and bold was the only thing he said about the change of paint in a few rooms on the ground level and the decor switch from minimal to contemporary, which oddly made her happy.

Those sixteen hours had been busy not for her but for him. Terrence hadn't stopped since his Uber arrived in the driveway of the house that used to be theirs. Once he was settled in the guest bedroom, he whisked her off to the last place she thought she'd be spending a Friday afternoon. Lowe's. It took them almost an hour to agree on a color for the nursery and then there was the awkward moment when they found a shade of green that they both liked but unfortunately the same moniker of a person they were trying to forget.

"I don't think this is right," Terrence said positioning a bolt into a hole that was three sizes too small.

"Did you get that bolt from compartment B?" Katrina asked, sitting with her feet up in the rocker and the wide two-page booklet in her hands.

"Yes." He answered, perspiration forming on his face from the manual labor he'd been doing for the last several hours even though Katrina told him she was planning on paying someone to put the stroller, bouncer, changing table, and now crib.

"And are you placing it in hole F?" Her hand rested on the diagram that insisted that he was holding the correct objects to complete the third step. He nodded, eying the screw and the board belonging to the crib's frame. "Then don't second guess me, man."

He glanced at her with a smirk growing on his pensive face. "Aight." He chuckled and she didn't fight the smile developed on her face as he followed the directions she gave. Once one side was completed he nodded and said a quick 'Alright' before moving to the next side.

After an hour, Terrence stretched his back and marveled at his work. A brilliant blue with a touch of green donned the walls, a job that he completed yesterday while Katrina was helping Imani organize the books prepping for a shipment of new releases. The white oak changing table matched the crib expertly that one would think they were purchased together however Katrina clicked it into her shopping cart at two-thirty in the morning when she woke from back pain. A cream rug and delicate curtains accentuated the room which was a room away from the master suite. The pastel blue rocking chair that Katrina still rested in was delivered today after she fell in love with it after stopping in a shop several minutes after they completed LaMaze class.

"We do good work together," Terrence said, nodding one more time before facing her.

Katrina's hands sat comfortably on the side of her belly with her eyes fixated out the window and a wrinkle in her eyebrows.

"What's wrong?" He asked, hurrying to her side.

She blinked away from the window momentarily forgetting that he was there. She placed her eyes softly on him. "Nothing."

"Are you sure?" He questioned, reaching for her wrist quickly getting into doctor mode.

Katrina batted his fingertips away, refusing his need to check her pulse. "She's just kicking." She grabbed his wrist and placed his hand on her belly. "See."

She watched the range of emotions shift on his handsome face from worry to surprise to love and then to sadness. She held his hand to her stomach a little longer hoping the flutter kicks of their daughter would usher joy back into his features. But it didn't. Tears formed in the wells of his eyes as his gaze stayed on her belly as if he could see the baby better than any ultrasound could.

Katrina gently squeezed his hand, "What's better?"

"I'm..." A tear glided over his high cheekbone. "I'm so sorry."

"You already said that." She wiped the tear away with the back of her hand. "And I already forgave you."

"Have you? Have you really?" His pink-tinted eyes peered at her with urgency as if his entire existence hung on her answer.

"Yes." She held the side of his face, his beard tickling her soft palm. "For us to be good parents. I have to. For me to heal. I have to. It took me some time to realize but..." Her sight traveled behind him as she thought about the unpacking and work she did with her therapist every Tuesday. It was something that she was finally ready to admit. "I want love in my life again...in the future and to be open to that prospect I have let go of all the hurt and grievances."

Terrence pulled his face from her embrace, "With him."

"With Keir." She said the name he didn't want to speak. "I don't know." She shrugged. "Maybe. Maybe not. I can't predict the future. I'm just saying that I'm not closing my heart off."

"Have you closed your heart off to me?" The clearness of his tone and soberness of his features birth a wave of tension through her chest. "You told me you loved me."

She sighed remembering the exact moment those words slipped from her mouth before going fruit picking. "That was an accident. I wasn't focusing."

"Which means it's truly how you feel..." He fully stood. "On a subconscious level."

"We're not doing this." She shook her head lowering the recliner. "You promised not to bring this up again. You promised!"

"Okay. Okay." He held up his hands in surrender. "I didn't mean to get you all upset."

She grunted trying to rock out the chair but being in her third trimester made things like that harder. Terrence helped her up and supported her while she reclaimed her balance.

"We were talking about the heart and I wanted to know if I was still in yours because..." His hand remained at the small of her back and since she didn't move from his touch he kept going. "Half of mine belongs to you and the other to her." He clung to her hand. His gaze shifted to her stomach then back to her. "I can't change that and I don't want to. I make..made poor choice but nothing will stop me from loving you and to know if..."

"Terrence..." She stopped his words. "I never stopped loving you. Stupid me, I still loved you after seeing you having sex with someone else." He moved to speak but she continued. "I'm not saying that to hurt you. I'm saying it to let you know how tight of a hold you have on me. My love for you hasn't died...my trust for you has."

Katrina faced him, holding both of his hands with the hope that he'd understand every word she spoke. "Do you know how hard this hurts?" Her voice broke as the very pain quaked through her soul. "Being in love with someone you can't have not because they don't want you but because they aren't good for you. If I stay with you I'll have doubt and fear that you'll do it again, cheat again, lie again and I can't live like that...not if I want to be a good mother, friend, wife, or a sane person."

Terrence nodded as if finally realizing the immensity of damage he inflicted upon her. Katrina left him in the nursery needing to seek refuge in the bathroom. As Terrence stood there repeating her words in his mind it was one statement that his psyche highlighted, My love for you hasn't died. And that was all he wanted, her love romantic or not. 

Why do you think Katrina decided to be honest with Terrence about her feelings?

How do you like Terrence would act if he was in the same room as Keir?