Erik standing not two feet away from me, a glower on his face.
"So, you're alive."
I rolled my eyes at him. "Yup."
"What were you thinking, Annika? You know you can't just go out alone."
I pop one of the berries into my mouth and make a face at him. "I can do whatever I want."
Sliding the berries across the counter and in front of a chair, I sit down and pull the top off of the sparkling water. I take a big gulp and eye him. His face is tense.
"What’s your problem? I thought we were getting along."
I shrug a shoulder. "Who says we aren't getting along? For right now, anyway. Who knows what will happen tomorrow?"
He glares at me, making a disapproving sound. "What is that supposed to mean?"
I pick up a strawberry, biting into its succulent fruit. "Why did you even ask me to move in here with you?"
Apparently, my question was unexpected. He tilts his head, trying to puzzle out what I mean. "Why? I don't know. I guess I felt like we were spending all our time together anyway… So why not?"
I snort. "How utterly unromantic. Here I was, feeling like it was a sign that things are going well between us."
He holds his arms across his chest. "They are."
I arch a brow at him. "For how long? Because if we are not building something that can last… I'm not interested. I am trying to shape my future here."
He pushes his cheek out with his tongue. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves here. That's all I am trying to say."
I glare at him. "What do you see for us in the future? A year from now. Or five years from now. Do you see us getting married someday? Starting a family?"
He frowns and looks pensive. I'm forced to wait for a full minute while he thinks about my questions. I take another sip of water as he considers what to say.
"I don't know, exactly." He shrugs. "I try not to think too much about what will happen in the future. It's easier just to focus on what is right in front of me."
I toyed with the cap of the water, unable to look at him. "I'm asking if you think that we will be together. That's it."
There's a note of hesitation on his face. "What do you want me to say? I don't know. I feel like there are so many factors working against us. If I had to make a wager, I would probably bet against us in the long term."
My heart sinks. I knew that he felt that way. That's a big reason why I disappeared all day to mope on my own.
But it's a whole different thing to say it out loud.
I can't meet his eye anymore. "You're getting in your own head. That's what this is about, isn't it? This morning, when I said that you needed to talk to Stellan, it shook you. And now you're not even sure that we should be together. Do I have all that right?"
A muscle in his jaw tenses. "Why are you so worried about the future? Why can't you just be happy with what we have right now?"
I put my hands on the counter, pushing up from my seat. "Because that isn't good enough for me. What woman wants to hear that you like her right now, but you don't know about what the future holds? That's how relationships fail."
He arches a brow at me. "And you're the expert, are you? Admit it. You don't have any idea of how relationships work."
"Neither do you. Obviously."
His gaze narrows on my face. "So, what, then? Where do we go from here?"
I give a humorless laugh. "I don't see how we do anything together at this point. If you don't believe that we will be together for the foreseeable future, I think I would rather just call it what it is right now. Because if you think that something is going to die, it usually does."
He squints at me. "I'm not saying that we will not last."
I shake my head and roll my eyes. "That's not good enough, Erik. Either you believe in us or you don't. And it sounds an awful lot like you don't."
He flexes his fingers and tightens his fists.
“You know just as well as I do that when the press gets ahold of the existence of our relationship, we're done for. That's not even talking about what Stellan will feel when he finds out that