"So, what did you think of that job Lucy offered you at Christmas?" Edward asked Laura. "Are you gonna take it?"
"Well, why not?" Laura asked. "Giving my quirky style to a bunch of really rich people who actually want it? That is gonna pay so well! We might even be able to get a bigger house with all the money I'm going to get!"
"Why do we need a bigger house?" Edward asked. "The one your father got us is big enough. Both of the boys have their own rooms."
"Well, I know, but...I don't want to spend my whole life in a house that my father bought," Laura sighed. "Wouldn't it make you feel accomplished to get a house with our own money?"
"Don't you mean with your money?" Edward asked. "That's what you said!"
"Well you can chip in too, if you want," Laura replied. "It's just that I'll probably be making more, and..."
"Never mind," Edward replied shortly. "If you wanna pay for all of it yourself, go ahead."
He then strode off, and Laura tried to go after him, but then decided against it and headed downstairs instead to get things ready for the next day's appointments.
That night, after Laura read Eli his bedtime story and told him goodnight, she left his room and took a deep breath, preparing to apologize to her husband when she got in her room. But when she opened the bedroom door, Edward wasn't anywhere about. She then began looking for him and found him in the basement on the sofa.
"What are you doing down here?" Laura asked. "Come upstairs to bed."
"Oh, I don't think I will," Edward replied. "You apparently just want everything for yourself, so I''ll stay down here in the basement on this tiny little sofa and you go sleep in our bed."
"Oh, don't be silly!" Laura replied. "Do you realize what sleeping on the sofa will do to your back? You know it hurts in the morning sometimes, and that's when you're sleeping in our bed! The sofa will just make it worse!"
Edward sat up. "Is that some crack about my age? Great, first you say I can't properly support my family, and now you're calling me old. This is just great!"
Laura rolled her eyes. "You know perfectly well that you aren't old and I'm not implying any such thing, but if you want to be stupid and stay down here on this couch, go ahead. I won't try and stop you anymore. I'm sorry for caring."
"Oh, you call that caring?" Edward called after her as she stomped up the stairs to bed. "I don't!"
"Well, good night, then!" Laura shouted back. "Sleep well."
Edward got up off the sofa and shouted from the stairwell, "I hope the mattress is lumpy and you toss and turn all night."
"I'm gonna ignore that!" Laura shot back. When she reached the bedroom, she slammed the door as much as she could without waking Eli, got in her pajamas, punched her pillow a few times, then went to bed, making a plan to talk to her mother about this whole mess as soon as possible.
"Mom, what do you do when you and Daddy have fights about stuff?" Laura asked Selina over coffee on a day where she had the morning off. "And don't just say 'Sleep with him', cause I don't think that'll do it this time."
"Well, what happened with you and Edward?" Selina asked. "You didn't cheat, did you? I know he's a bit sensitive about his age."
"No!" Laura shook her head. "I had a talk with Lucy at Christmas and she told me about some friends of hers who like the look I did for the salon and want me to do the same sort of thing for their game rooms. And these friends of hers are rich. So I proposed paying for a bigger house with my commissions and Edward freaked out."
Selina sighed. "Oh, dear. The male pride issue. Do not pay for the whole house yourself. use most of the money to buy yourself new hair dye or whatever it is you buy to make yourself happy, and then only put a small amount toward the down payment of the house and let Edward give the rest."
"But that's so dumb!" Laura replied.
Selina nodded. "I know. But sometimes, even when you know you're right, it's better to let your husband's ego have its way."
"Well, okay," Laura nodded. "I suppose if it makes him happy, I'll do that."
"I know it's a pain, but from the sound of things, if you want it all to improve, you're gonna have to," Selina replied, putting a hand on her daughter's arm.
"What's going on?" Elijah asked, coming in the kitchen and sitting down.
"It's nothing you'd be interested in talking about," Laura replied, not wanting to tell her father what was happening cause she figured he'd just blame her for hurting Edward's feelings and tell her to go home and grovel until her husband forgave her.
"Try me," Elijah replied. "I might be able to help."
"I don't know," Laura sighed. "I think you might be more critical in this situation than anything else."
"I have to agree with her," Selina replied.
"You don't know that!" Elijah replied. "I think you're just making assumptions! Go ahead and tell me, please."
"All right," Laura nodded. "Edward and I are having a spat about money and I'm trying to do whatever I can to fix it without compromising my integrity too much." She then shut her eyes tight and waited for the scolding she thought would come, but it never did.
"What sort of money problems are you having?" Her father asked instead. "Do I need to give you a check?"
"No, it's not that, but thank you," Laura said quickly. "It's just that I had a talk with Lucy about a job that could bring me a good sum of cash, and when I suggested to Edward that we use that money to buy a different house, he accused me of wanting to usurp his place in the family, and making him feel old and unable to support us all. He's not even sleeping in our bed! He's decided that he's staying on the couch in the basement until I apologize, but it's not good for his back, I can tell." She sighed. "That's what I came over here for: to ask Mom how you and she handle situations like this."
"I suggested that she should let Edward put up most of the money," Selina replied. "If that's the only thing that's gonna snap him out of this, that's what she has to do."
"Yep," Laura replied. "It's a really stupid thing to fight about, but Edward's health is more important, so I'm just gonna give in. There'll be other times where I can come out ahead."
Elijah smiled at this and took her hand. "I'm proud of you," he said. "You're becoming a person of tact and diplomatic brilliance, just like your mother."
"Code for: your father knows he can be a pain in the butt sometimes and I handle it well," Selina smirked.
"Yes, exactly," Elijah sighed. "But I make no apologies."
"No one said you had to," Selina replied. "I can deal with it by now."
"Thanks for the help," Laura said, standing up from the table and gulping down the rest of her coffee as her parents got into another one of their cathartic fights. "I'm gonna go call Edward to apologize. Goodbye!"
Neither of her parents responded, but she didn't care. She drove home and called Edward over his lunch hour, doing such a good job apologizing that he apologized as well and came home with takeout so they could have lunch together, along with a promise that he'd start sleeping in their bed again that night.
"You wanna go out sometime?" Charlie asked Elizabeth as they headed toward a bakery Selina had recommended they visit. "I mean, we didn't get to spend Christmas together because you were with your mom and Nadia, but we can make up for that, right?"
"If you want," Elizabeth said. "I'm sure there's somewhere we can go that's neither of our parents' houses."
"Maybe get some wine and dinner," Elizabeth smiled. "But no blood, though."
"Oh, definitely. We don't want to repeat what happened at the hotel. Thank god we got home and I healed you before our parents could ask any questions," Charlie replied.
"Yeah," Elizabeth nodded. "That certainly was lucky."
"So we're actually gonna go on a real date," Charlie sighed. "I mean, there was that trip with your dad to the apple orchard, but I don't count that."
"Yeah, me either," Elizabeth replied. "So you wanna go traditional with this where you plan everything and surprise me? Or do you want me to help you?"
Charlie shrugged. "It doesn't matter to me," he said. "Whatever you want, I'll do."
"It should be somewhere fancy," Elizabeth said. "I got a new dress and I want to show it off. But other than that, I don't really care."
"All right," Charlie replied. "I'll ask my dad if he knows any good places."
"Are he and your mom still fighting?" Elizabeth asked.
"No, they're getting along now," Charlie replied. "But it took long enough."
"Yeah," Elizabeth scoffed. "No kidding. It's just like when my parents fight."
"Let's not talk about them anymore," Charlie suggested as they reached the bakery door after walking down the street from his car. "Let's just have some cookies and think of things other than our parents, okay?"
"Fine with me," Elizabeth replied, and sat down at a table while Charlie ordered them some cookies and cocoa.
"I think it's wonderful that you and Elizabeth want to go out somewhere nice," Edward told Charlie. "Have you mentioned this to Gregory? Who does he want to chaperone?"
"We haven't mentioned anything about it to Gregory at all," Charlie replied. "In fact, we were hoping we could do this without him knowing."
Laura raised an eyebrow. "So you're gonna fib to my brother? Honey, that won't go well."
"But it also won't go well if he feels the need to watch us every second," Charlie pointed out. "So I think lying or withholding information is the best choice."
"All right," Laura sighed. "I suppose you're old enough to make your own choices, but when Gregory finds out and explodes, remember that I warned you."
"All right," Charlie replied. "I will."
Fortunately, Laura's caveat was unnecessary since Gregory was out of town doing stuff for the shelter on the night of the date, so they didn't have to deal with him and were sent off with nothing but a good luck wish from Katherine after Charlie came and picked Elizabeth up.
They got to the restaurant, sat down at the table, and ordered drinks (which Charlie had to compel the server to bring them), while Elizabeth hoped it would be a calm night, unlike the majority of times they had been together in the past.
"You've already fed tonight, right?" She whispered Charlie across the table. "There's not gonna be funny business tonight involving you feeding, will there?"
"I've fed already," Charlie promised. "And I'm sorry I didn't mention this before, but I love your dress."
Elizabeth looked down at her off the shoulder pink cocktail dress (which had come with a matching wrap) and smiled. "Thank you," she said. "Mom liked it too." She reached for her water and took a sip as she saw the server coming with their drinks. But just as she was about to reach them, she stumbled on a woman's purse and the glasses went flying and broke. She made the mistake of trying to pick up the pieces while Charlie was watching and Elizabeth saw him tense as the bleeding woman came toward them.
"Sorry about that," she said. "We'll get you other drinks, I promise. I'm gonna go clean up, but I'll be back."
Charlie still had his eyes locked on her as she walked away, but instead of being jealous of this, Elizabeth was more afraid for the server than anything else, cause she recognized what the look in Charlie's eyes was usually followed by. And when he got up to 'go to the bathroom', her fears were confirmed.
"You know what?" She said, trying to hold him off. "Why don't I come with you?"
"I'm not a child," Charlie replied. "I don't need someone to come to the bathroom with me!"
"In this case, I think you do!" Elizabeth replied.
"Oh," Charlie smiled and chuckled. "You mean you wanna watch? I knew you were a bit kinky."
"Well, I'm not really," Elizabeth shrugged. "But you can think what you want, as long as you let me come to the bathroom with you."
He then took her hand and led her to the bathroom where their server was washing up.
"What a shame, letting all that blood go to waste," Charlie said as he watched it go down the drain.
Hearing his voice, their server turned. "What are you doing in here?" She asked. "This is a women's rest room."
"I just came to see if you were all right," Charlie replied. "And if you needed any help."
"I'm fine, thank you," the server replied.
"No, you aren't," Charlie said firmly. "Let me help you." He then pounced on her, sinking his fangs into her neck while Elizabeth watched in horror. She tried to stop him a time or two, but it was no use, and she ended up being pushed away and hitting her head on the wall.
When she regained her senses, Charlie was leaning over her and helping her sit up.
"Are you all right?" He asked. "I didn't mean to hurt you, but you understand why I couldn't have you in the way."
"Sure, whatever," Elizabeth replied. "Did you kill her?"
"I didn't mean to," Charlie replied, gesturing at the dead woman's body, which was propped up against a bathroom stall. "I guess I got a little carried away."
"Well, now that she's dead, what are you planning to do with the body?" Elizabeth asked. "You can't just leave her there!"
Charlie wiped her off with some paper towels and then he placed her on the toilet in the bathroom stall and shut the door. "There," he said. "Let someone else find her. Now, about that wine..."
"If we're gonna eat," Elizabeth told him, "I think we should do it somewhere where there isn't a dead body. Don't you think?"
"Fine," Charlie sighed. "If you insist."
"Good," Elizabeth nodded and pulled him out of the bathroom. "Let's go."