The Plan

"Where's Brandon anyway?" he asked as he wrapped an arm around her.

"Playing with Carly. She learned how to catch so he's throwing all kinds of stuff at her."

He nodded. "At least he's getting along with somebody."

"Just her." She said. "Since you two went out he won't talk to me or Allison, and Jack is too much of a 'crybaby' for his liking."

"Well Jack sure does have a set of lungs on him."

"Hopefully he'll tone it down as he gets older."

"I would hope so."

"...I hate this." she said after a few moments of silence.

"Hate what?"

"This." She motioned between them. "I hate the fact that I had to come up with a plan to fake being happy with you. That's not something that I should have to fake. I hate the fact that we're so awkward. I get it, I'm not the easiest person to deal with given what's happened to us, but God, sometimes it feels like you can't wait to get away from me." She shook her head and moved away from him, getting off of the bed. "We both talked about how we'd get better and we'd fix things, but the fact is that nothing is going to get fixed because we're too fucking stubborn to admit that we both had a part in messing this up way before the whole Roman thing happened. A marriage doesn't take a turn like ours did in the course of a few months. This was years in the making." She looked frustrated before letting out a small sigh. "I know I'm repeating myself, and I sound like a broken record so I'll just stop." she shook her head.

"I can't wait to get away from you? Lacy, when it gets awkward here sometimes, you go off to Ellie's house. I stay here, I try to fix things, I try to make you happy. I'm not saying that you're not working on things either, because I know you are and yeah, sometimes I'll go out with Colt...but it's because I think you don't want me around." he told her. "How do you want me to tell you that I fucked up? Before this whole Roman thing even happened, I don't recall having a problem. We were getting ready for the holidays and everything. We were good. Was there something I missed? If so, then I will gladly tell you that I fucked up and was in the wrong."

"So, everytime something was wrong, or wasn't right, you wouldn't buy me things to try to make me happy? I wouldn't take off my clothes and try to make you happy? That's not fixing things Phil, that's sweeping things under the rug and it only works for so long. I'm not looking for you to place any blame on yourself, I'm not looking for an apology. But I'm not happy and you're not happy, and it's obviously affecting our children now. So if we're going to solve this, if we're going to fix this marriage and family, then we need to stop sweeping issues under the rug and deal with them head on, because I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired, Phil. I just am. I want to be happy, with you, but if you don't think that can happen, if you want to just keep pretending then let me know right now so I know what to expect for the rest of my life."

He took a minute to process everything in and then nodded. "I fucked up by buying you things and thinking everything would be fixed whenever I did that. It was wrong. Like you said, we need to face things head on and not sweep it under the rug. When we have problems that we need to fix, I'll be sure to be upfront and just deal with it like we should. I want to be happy too and enjoy what we have. The last thing I want is for us to end up hating each other and even though it's too late, I don't want the kids to deal with our problems and have it affect them."

"So what do we do?"

"Hm, well...I guess to sort of get on the right track, maybe we can attempt to start fresh."

"That's what we always say."

"Okay then...um...how about we have a date night?" he suggested. "Obviously it won't fix things right away or is it a way to fix things, but we can at least try and enjoy each other's company."

"If you think it'll help."

"Unless you have an idea?"

"No, not really." She shook her head.

"Then I guess we can do that."

"Why don't we just hang out for a second." She said. "No need to do it right away. Lets try to get comfortable with each other before we go out and just be awkward with each other."

"Alright, then we'll stay here." he nodded.

"Okay."

"Great." he nodded. "Well, how about I make food or something? Then we could watch a movie together in the living room."