thehungryone (thehungryone) wrote in shadows_rpg, @ 2023-09-08 13:39:00 |
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Entry tags: | #july 2018, dan, dan x tatum, tatum |
Who: Dan and Tatum
When: Late evening, Saturday July 14
Where: Home
Status: Complete
Tatum had tried really hard not to be suspicious or paranoid when Dan left to meet up with Spence Wheeler. The two had been friends since high school, and Tatum liked Spence just fine. But there was that little voice nagging in her head that maybe Dan was lying to her and he was going to see his girlfriend. Ex-girlfriend. Tatum was self-aware enough to know that she had no business being suspicious of anything, considering what she had done, but it wasn’t like she could just turn off how she felt. She tried, of course, because pretending everything was fine was so much easier than facing things head-on. So she did just that, pretending she was totally fine with Dan ditching her on a Saturday night to hang out with someone else. He saw right through her, of course, but he didn’t not go.
She tried to busy herself that evening by cleaning up and attempting to do some laundry. She didn’t have a lot, but Dan did, so she washed what she could, quickly throwing away the few t-shirts she had somehow managed to shrink when she pulled them from the dryer. It was at least something to keep her mind occupied. For a while, anyway.
Eventually, as the night got darker, Tatum finally couldn’t stand it anymore. She drove over to the Porch, where she found Dan’s car. And she did something she wasn’t exactly proud of. She peered into the bar to make sure he was with who he said he was with. And he was. He and Spence were playing pool and laughing, and Tatum felt immense relief as she hurried back to her illegally parked car and took off back home.
It was stupid and crazy and dumb and she knew all of that, but love was stupid and crazy and dumb and she didn’t exactly feel super confident in she and Dan’s reunion just yet. But she was trying really hard to make things right. She cleaned and made them dinner and let him go do whatever he wanted, because that was his right. She tried to keep her affliction away from him, waiting until he went to work before she grabbed the raw meat from the fridge to try and drain as much animal blood from it as she could. It kept the more horrific cravings at bay, but Tatum knew it was only a matter of time before butcher meat didn’t work anymore.
As she waited for Dan to come home, she grabbed a beer from the fridge and walked out to the backyard, where she sat on the small deck, enjoying the summer night and the sound of crickets in the yard. Tatum hoped he was in a good mood when he got home, and that he would spend some time with her. They hadn’t exactly gone out together since she had been home herself, and Tatum was starting to get restless about it. Sure, she did her own thing, she wasn’t confined to the house, but it wasn’t the same without Dan.
Just as she checked her phone and contemplated sending him a text to see if he would be home soon, she heard his car pull into the drive. Relaxing, Tatum released a breath and waited, hoping he would wander out to join her.
It had been nice to have a night out. Dan was usually either working or exhausted from working, and he wasn’t able to make a lot of time for friends. Seeing Spence and talking to him had been grounding, though, and even though his friend hadn’t been full of advice, Dan felt like his head was screwed on a bit straighter. Still, he sat in the car for a couple of minutes after he killed the engine, looking at the house with its lights on and trying to figure out how he felt about going inside. Too many mixed emotions.
Dan finally climbed out and went inside. He dropped his keys and toed out of his shoes before padding to the kitchen. He was a little drunk, but he’d paced himself since he was driving home, and he wanted another beer or three. Tatum wasn’t in the immediate vicinity, but it wasn’t a huge house and it didn’t take long to spot the back of her head through the sliding glass door that led to the deck and the yard. With a beer in each hand, Dan walked out there to plop into the other chair. He stretched his legs out with a sigh and looked over at his wayward wife before he twisted one bottle open. “I wasn’t sure you’d still be up,” Dan said to greet her.
When Dan joined her, Tatum smiled a bit as he got settled, noticing that both beers seemed to be for him. Which was fine, since she still had her own. It made her wonder how much he'd had to drink at the Porch, though. Dan didn't look drunk, but he certainly looked relaxed. Which might be a good thing. Tatum was so tempted to just crawl onto his lap and cuddle with him, but she never knew if he would want that physical affection or not. She was still trying to navigate this whole thing and though she usually just did whatever felt right to her, she didn't want to irritate him at the moment. "I wanted to wait up for you," she said, drawing the heels of her feet up onto the edge of her chair. "How's Spence doing?"
Like so many things these days, Dan couldn’t tell if that was sweet or manipulative. Was Tatum waiting up because she wanted to see him? Or because she wanted him to feel guilty for leaving her alone while he had a night out with a friend? He hated that his brain generated so many questions about her motives now, when he’d rarely doubted her intentions before, but that was just how it was. “He’s great,” he answered with a nod, lifting his beer to his lips. “Roxy moved in, they’re doing good. Job’s good, all that. He’s still a damn pool shark.” Dan chuckled faintly and took a swig. He was sure Tatum didn’t care all that much about how Spence was, he’d always been more Dan’s friend than a mutual one, but it was something to talk about. “How was your evening?” he asked.
"Spence and Roxy are together?" Tatum's brows rose at that bit of news. "Wow. I guess things work out sometimes." Maybe people just needed to grow apart to come back together, she mused. She wondered if that was true for her and Dan, even though their circumstances were obviously pretty different than just two high school sweethearts breaking up. "My night was good. Watched some tv, did some laundry. Nothing super exciting. We should go out with Spence and Roxy sometime soon. I'd love to see them again." No, they hadn't really been Tatum's friends, but she still wanted to slip back into all aspects of Dan's life, and that included being around his friends. "We could go out together too, just the two of us," Tatum added. "If you're ready to do that."
It did sound like a boring night, and Dan felt a brief flash of guilt that he’d been out having fun while she was basically doing nothing. He tried to squash it fast. He deserved to go out on his own and see friends if he wanted to. Hell, Dan needed to do that to stay sane, between his job and this situation with Tatum. He kind of doubted she was honestly dying to see Spence and Roxy again, but he could still recognize it as an effort to be more in his life. Dan just wasn’t sure if that was endearing or annoying, or both. “Maybe we will soon,” he answered after a brief pause, his gaze on Tatum’s face. “Where would you wanna go?” He knew she wanted him to take her out on a date, like they used to do, but Dan was struggling to find the motivation to do it. He wasn’t that good at pretending.
Tatum shrugged as she took another small sip of beer. "I don't know. Dinner? Movie? I haven't been to that new karaoke place yet, but it looks like a lot of fun." She was pretty good at reading Dan, even after three years apart, and she could tell he wasn't terribly enthused about it. She didn't know if it was being seen with her in public, or going out with his friends. Maybe both. Holding her beer against her bent knee, Tatum shrugged again, sounding as nonchalant as she could at the moment. "We don't have to if you don't want to. I wouldn't want to make you uncomfortable or anything."
“Oh okay, you wouldn’t wanna make me uncomfortable,” Dan echoed, unable to suppress the sarcasm in his tone. He shook his head a bit and looked out into the backyard, lifting his beer again. “Breaking my heart into a million pieces and destroying my mental health for three years is okay though, right?” The alcohol and freely talking with his best friend seemed to have loosened his tongue -- Dan could hear himself and distantly thought he was being kind of mean, but he couldn’t help it. He hadn’t forgiven her yet, and how could he? Tatum hadn’t even been back for two weeks yet and she seemed to want him to pretend like everything was normal. He knew they were sharing a house and sleeping together again, but that didn’t fix anything. “Sure, let me pick one of my nights off to treat you to dinner and a movie.” Saying it like that made him feel like a giant fucking sucker, and it further tightened that angry knot inside of him.
Tatum listened to Dan, idly peeling away the label on her beer bottle. A dry lump grew in her throat but she swallowed it down, aware that he had every right to be mean, or even angry. Maybe she did want to pretend everything was back to normal, but she knew it was a process, and how could things ever get back to normal if Dan didn't want anything to do with her outside of her being naked? Tatum wanted to fix things, but she just didn't know how to do that, at least in a way that mattered to Dan. There was a wave of her own anger for a moment, but like the emotion in her throat, she swallowed it down. Tatum knew she had a temper, but she had been trying hard not to unleash it where it wasn't warranted. Doing so would only push him farther away. "I never said it was okay," she said quietly, still peeling away tiny bits of paper. "And I'm sorry I did that to you. I'm trying to show you that. And you don't have to take me anywhere. We don't have to do anything you don't want to do."
She looked hurt, and the people pleasing part of Dan wanted to take it back, apologize, tell her he knew she was trying, but the impulses were more quiet than they usually were. Maybe because he was drinking, maybe because his anger over it all had been stirred up again, maybe Tatum just didn’t deserve that kind of consideration yet. Or placating, or whatever it really was. Dan hadn’t tried to force her out of the house, he was keeping the kitchen stocked in raw meat and the bills paid, he felt like he was already making a lot of accommodations for someone who’d done him so dirty. Sometimes he felt like he was handling this whole thing all wrong, but he didn’t know how to do it right. He felt a whole aggravated diatribe pushing at the back of his tongue, begging him to just let loose on her and purge some of that pain and frustration and grief he’d been carrying around. Dan’s jaw worked for a second as he glared out into the yard, and he took a couple of quick swigs of beer. “How about ... how about what I do want to do?” he asked, his voice still tight. “You keep saying you want to fix it, you mean that, right?”
"I do mean it," Tatum said, trying not to sound exasperated. Maybe she wasn't fixing it the way Dan wanted her to - if he wanted her to at all - but Tatum was only doing what she knew how to do. Sometimes it felt like he believed her, that she loved him and wouldn't leave again and that she was sorry, but those moments usually only came when they were being intimate. In moments like these, Tatum didn't know exactly what to do or say and she hated that he was angry again. Obviously she deserved every second of it, but she didn't want to hurt anymore than he did. Tatum unfolded herself and set her feet back on the ground, her beer cradled between her hands now. "Just... tell me what you want."
It probably hadn’t been necessary to ask because Tatum gave him the answer he was expecting and wanted, but it had been more to make a point. If she pushed back against this idea, he could throw it back in her face that she didn’t actually mean she would do anything to fix it. “Therapy,” Dan answered flatly, finally looking over at her again to judge her reaction. “We need to be in couple’s counseling to work through all of this bullshit -- I need it, you need it, we need it together. You don’t have to tell them everything about ... you know, your current situation. But I can’t handle this without help, Tate. And I don’t think you can either.” They already had a long way to go if they wanted to rebuild their relationship, but Dan felt like they were still twelve steps back from that -- Tatum needed a professional to help her with whatever had drawn her to join a fucking cult in the first place, and Dan needed to deal with his anger and hurt in a way that didn’t keep damaging both of them.
Tatum's instinctive reaction was to push back and remind Dan of how pointless therapy was, not to mention how expensive. There was nothing some third party person could do or say to fix her and she fully believed that the only people who could fix their marriage was her and Dan. But Dan already knew all of this, because she had been forced to see a counselor in high school due to her home life, and Dan had heard plenty of Tatum's complaining regarding it. She did her very best not to scowl, but shifted restlessly in the chair. "Can't we just fight and have sex until everything is better?" she muttered, though it came out less joke-y than she meant it, so Tatum added, in a much lighter tone, "If you think we should go to therapy, then we'll go to therapy. You know how much I love dumping all my trauma on strangers."
Dan was indeed aware of his wife’s feelings about therapy and professional counseling, which was why he’d brought it up with a preamble. He used to be skeptical himself, but actually finding a good therapist to help him through Tatum abandoning him had evolved his thinking on the subject. He’d found it immensely helpful and it had changed him for the better. There were shitty therapists just like there were shitty doctors, but he felt sure that they could find a good one who could actually help them. Maybe his current therapist could give a good recommendation. “If you want to stay married, you’ll do this with me,” Dan answered flatly. He wasn’t even going to dignify the first part with an answer. “And you’ll actually try. Okay, Tatum? If I see you’re not taking it seriously, then it’s over.” That was easy to say when he was a bit drunk and mad already ... but Dan knew deep inside he needed to hold that line for his own sanity.
She had no idea how many times she would have to assure him that she was going to try. She was trying. If he wanted to try therapy, she would try therapy. If he wanted her to go running down Main Street naked, she would do that too. It would probably be easier than sitting on some couch and having a stranger pry into her psyche. And while Tatum knew she had no business or right to wish for anything, she just wished he had approached her about this without sounding so cold. It was like she was a child being punished for misbehaving. "I said I would go," she snapped, pushing herself up from the chair. The discomfort was harder to ignore now than when Dan first came out to join her. Tatum didn't want to fight or piss him off further, but she felt cornered, even if it was unfair on her part, and when she felt cornered, it was hard not to lash out or try to escape. "I said I would try. I'll get tattooed on my forehead so you have the answer every time you ask."
It was something akin to a positive answer, but it still made Dan’s blood pressure rise and put a bad feeling in his stomach. Tatum had always been touchy and didn’t like owning up to being in the wrong, so he was sure his insistence that they involve a professional in their relationship was aggravating her ... but where did she get off, taking that sort of tone with him? He was telling her what he needed, and she was being sarcastic about it. If he’d been in her shoes, he would’ve been groveling at every turn, willing to happily do whatever she wanted, reassuring her that he would go to the ends of the earth to fix things and not be a bitch about it. But they’d always been very different people, hadn’t they? Dan’s jaw clenched and he looked out into the shadowy yard again and drank down the rest of his beer. Tatum could walk away yet again if she wanted to, Dan felt so fucking done tonight. He already planned to sleep on the couch.
She knew he was mad and that she hadn't helped anything by losing her temper, but Tatum couldn't always bottle it up for the sake of keeping the peace. If this was peace to begin with. Dan didn't respond, but that didn't surprise Tatum at all. He wasn't a confrontational person but he had probably been helped along tonight by talking to Spence and drinking. So Tatum took a breath to try and smooth out the frayed edges in her temper before she spoke again. "I'll do whatever it takes," she said again, calmer this time. "Anything, Dan. And I know I deserve every mean word and the distance, and you not wanting to spend time with me, I get it. But it hurts too. And I'm sorry for that, 'cause I know I deserve it, and I should just suck it up..." She trailed off because she didn't know exactly what to ask for or what she needed, and it may not even matter. But she at least wanted Dan to know where she was mentally, even if he didn't care.
Dan did care, but it was hard to balance that caring against caring about himself, which was something he’d learned that he sucked at doing, historically. He’d spent a good chunk of his life bending over backwards for Tatum whenever he could, and he couldn’t go back to that after what she’d done to him. No matter what her intentions had been, the way she’d just disappeared and let him think the worst for three long years had been like throwing all the love and effort and care he’d put into her and their relationship right in his face -- no, worse, it felt like she’d tossed it in a hole and shit all over it. Dan was sure she was hurting and struggling inside, he knew intellectually that she’d been through something huge and traumatic, but he wasn’t the one to help her with that anymore. He didn’t think he could. “I wanted to spend the past three fucking years with you,” he muttered. “So take whatever pain you’re feeling and multiply it by that. You’re just gonna have to show me the effort, because I don’t believe you anymore.”
It was hard for her to be vulnerable when it was so much easier to pretend she was fine but Tatum supposed she deserved that response. She had hurt Dan with her impulsiveness and selfishness and she knew it. Whatever she was going through now, she could handle on her own. If Dan didn't want to be around her, she would show him she was sorry in other ways. She would get a job and pay him back for all the money he wasted trying to find her. She would help pay the bills again. She would even go back to sleeping on the couch to give him space. It was a plan, at least, getting her shit together. But god, she would miss being able to curl up beside him in the middle of the night. She had missed it for years, even if he wouldn't believe it. Tatum swallowed and slipped her hands into the light hoodie she was wearing. "Well, I don't blame you for that. I wouldn't believe me either if I were in your shoes," she said lightly, eager to push all the feelings back down again. Somewhere they didn't hurt anymore. "But I'll give you the effort. That's really all I can do." There wasn't much else to say so she headed for the back door to get some things for the couch.
Dan kind of hated the tone in her voice, that light casualness that Tatum was so good at. He knew it was forced, but it still always felt like she wasn’t taking anything seriously. Like they were just fighting over some rude comment she’d made or something petty like that. He didn’t know how to make her understand just how badly she’d hurt him and fucked him up, and how jarring it was to suddenly have her back in his life, just when he’d thought he was getting himself back on track. Dan let Tatum walk away back into the house, still watching the shadows in the back yard. He wanted her to go but he didn’t. He wanted to be left alone but he also wanted her to touch him, cling to him, tell him how sorry she was while they cried together. He wanted her to actually set her ego aside and beg for his forgiveness like she really cared about keeping him. Dan knew he couldn’t ask for anything like that though. So he just let some silent tears free on his own, wiping at his eyes and cheeks with the inside of his shirt. Everything felt so heavy and hard, and he didn’t know how to make it better. He sat out there for a while to finish his second beer and just let himself be upset, then stood to go back inside himself.
Inside the house, Tatum changed out of her clothes into a t-shirt for bed, washed her face and brushed her teeth, and tried to ignore everything else. There was a part of her that wanted to cling to Dan and beg and tell him she was sorry, but would he even believe her? She felt so many things, with guilt and regret being the most prevalent, but did that really matter? She had hurt him. She was the one who messed up and she felt stuck, like she didn't know what she could say or do if he would believe her sincerity or not. Would he believe her willingness to show him how much she loved him if she moved out? Found a place of her own and gave him the space? Tatum didn't have any money, but if it meant proving to Dan that she was serious about making amends, she would move back in with her parents. Or would he take that as her running away? Tatum dried her face with a hand towel and resisted the urge to scream in frustration. She deserved all of it, though. She was stupid and impulsive, and selfish. Her parents had been right about that, at least.
Dropping the towel to the sink, she left the bathroom and grabbed a pillow to carry to the couch. Dan had come back inside, and for once, Tatum was too tired to muster up the blase attitude. "I'll go to therapy," she said quietly. "I'll go with you and on my own. I'll listen to whatever they tell me. I'll get a job too, and pay you back for everything. If you want me to, I'll even move out. Whatever you want me to do, I promise I'll do it. I'm just sorry. I know you don't believe it, but I am." Her voice shook slightly and her eyes stung, but she did her best not to actually cry. Dan didn't want to see that, and she was afraid he might think she was being manipulative. But it was all the truth, and she hoped he could see that.
Dan noticed the bedding on the couch before Tatum started talking, and felt a pang of ... something. Some of his own regret and guilt? This would all be so much easier to deal with if his emotions about it weren’t all over the place. It was like his insides couldn’t decide how they felt about Tatum or any of this. There was just so much inside of him that wouldn’t be beneficial to express -- despite his attitude tonight, everything felt so tenuous to Dan, like saying the wrong thing could make Tatum disappear again. While on one hand that might make his life easier, considering it felt like someone had poured concrete into his chest. Which was why they needed a mediator, a counselor to help them communicate better and get through all of this. He wanted to feel trusting and in love with her again, but he couldn’t force it. It was going to take time.
That didn’t mean he didn’t feel any empathy for her when it was obvious she was going to sleep on the couch of her own volition. Dan had been planning to do that himself, and for a second he was relieved he didn’t have to, but the tiny waver in Tatum’s voice got to him. He ran a hand through his hair while trying to swallow down the thickness in his own throat. “I don’t want you to move out,” Dan answered after a few heartbeats, his voice not quite steady either. “I want this to work. I just ... we need help with it, so I’m -- I’m glad you’re willing to get it with me.” Tatum sounded sincere now, and that was a bit of a relief.
Tatum didn't really trust herself to speak again, with how thick the emotion was in her throat. This whole thing had been a rollercoaster for her, and she knew it had to have been even worse for Dan. It was just hard for her to find that balance of giving him what he needed and wanting to be with him. Tatum had always had a hard time limiting her own selfishness, especially where it came to Dan. He was the only consistent person in her life, since the moment they met to the point where she left and she had loved him for the entirety of it, even if he doubted that now. She would have doubted it too, had he left her the way she left him. She wouldn't have let him back in the house if the roles had been reversed. She probably would have chased him down the street with a baseball bat. Tatum had no idea if Dan wanted her to touch him, or even be near him right now, but she couldn't help herself from approaching him to give him a hug. If he pushed her away, she would accept it, but she needed to feel some kind of physical reassurance that this would be okay, and maybe he did too.
Dan had already considered how differently all of this would be going if the shoe was on the other foot, but it was useless to dwell there. They were different people and always had been. He could only handle things the way he could handle them, and Tatum ... well, she had her own way of doing things. He was just grateful she was willing to bend out of her comfort zone to try therapy with him. At least that was what she was saying now, and he was glad she wasn’t really digging her heels in about it. Maybe she really did know what thin ice she was on when it came to him, and now that they’d been apart for three years, he knew he could leave and live without her if he had to. Tatum likely wouldn’t handle that very well, but they would cross that bridge if they came to it. When she approached him with intent, Dan only hesitated for a second before he lifted his arms to meet her. Maybe he did need the reassurance, because embracing Tatum also felt like a relief. Dan didn’t want to fight with her or feel everything he did. He wished he could erase the past three years altogether, but he couldn’t and they just had to move forward. “You don’t have to sleep on the couch,” he murmured after just holding onto her for a moment.
Relief flooded her when Dan's arms wrapped around her body. Tatum never handled rejection well and while she would have accepted him not wanting to touch her, it would have been difficult to process internally. Hearing him say she didn't have to sleep on the couch prompted Tatum to press her face against his chest, like it might help keep the tears at bay. He was definitely a better person than she was and that was something Tatum had known for years. Hell, everyone knew it. "I'm sorry I fucked up so bad," she whispered, closing her eyes and just enjoying the feel of his body against hers. "I'm trying to make it right. I just don't wanna lose you again." He might be able to live without her, but Tatum wasn't sure she could do it without him. She didn't want to do this without him.
Maybe it was stupid of him, but Dan’s hand automatically moved to run fingers through the back of Tatum’s hair as she put her face in his chest. He’d always loved it in a guilty sort of way in the rare times when she clung to him like she needed comfort. Tatum’s reactions to the difficulties in life were usually more angry than sad, and Dan didn’t get a lot of chances to soothe her like this. Sure, he was the cause of her upset tonight, but that didn’t really change how nice it felt to hold her. Their bodies had always fit together so effortlessly, and sometimes he wished the rest of them did too. Her words made the lump in his throat ache even more, and Dan closed his eyes too, still petting the back of her head. “I know,” he murmured softly back after a thick swallow. “I know you’re trying. And I’m sorry too, I just ... it’s been a lot. For both of us, I think, for a long time. We’re not gonna handle it perfect.”
Nothing she ever did was perfect so it was no surprise she wasn’t handling this well either. It had always been so easy to win Dan back when they were kids, before the reality of adulthood and marriage began to seep in. But even then they managed to make it work… until Tatum left, anyway. The reasons behind that decision were so complicated, especially in her own mind. She had no idea how a therapist would help with it but if it meant keeping Dan, she would suffer through. And because it felt so good to have his body pressed to hers, Tatum didn’t pull away, but held onto him tightly. The sound of his heart beating against her ear was soothing. “I’ll try not to be too big of a pain in the ass,” she murmured. “Though you know how hard that is for me.”
Dan let out a snort-huff of amusement. Now wasn’t really the time, but he didn’t think Tatum would take offense to it. She was a pain in the ass and they both knew it. It had never made Dan love her any less. He would’ve happily put up with her bullshit for the past three years if it meant she was there. Everybody had bullshit, that was just part of being human, but not everybody just ran away like she had done. He gave her a gentle squeeze, a faint smile toying with his lips. “Don’t strain yourself, you know I can take a lot,” he murmured back, his tone light enough. Dan curled his fingers in her hair and gave it an affectionate tug. Part of him wanted to reassure her that they would find their way and figure it out, but that felt too much like a promise he couldn’t make. It was going to take work from both of them, and Dan knew he was committed, he just hoped Tatum was too. “I want this to work,” he added instead. “I want to be with you. We just gotta find how to make it work for both of us.”
Tatum was well aware of how difficult she could be and Dan was the one person in her life who’d always had the patience for it. She probably took him for granted because of it and that was something she knew she needed to change if she wanted to keep him and earn his forgiveness. It was still a relief to hear Dan wanted to be with her and she lifted her face up to look at him, her arms still wrapped around his waist. “We’ll figure it out,” she said, confident in that because she refused to let Dan walk away from her. She had done the walking three years ago and it was a huge mistake. There would be no more of that and Tatum was determined to show him that. “I’ll still sleep on the couch if you want me to, but I’d really rather sleep with you in our bed tonight.” They didn’t even have to have sex or anything like that. Tatum just wanted to be close to Dan and for him to be close to her.
He gazed down into Tatum’s eyes, brushing his fingers through the side of her blonde hair. Dan had missed her so fucking much and part of him was still so mad at her -- he supposed you could really only have feelings that big about someone you loved. Because he did still love her, as challenging and aggravating as she could be. Something between them still felt right, and he just wanted to nurture that again and see if it re-blossomed. “I don’t want you on the couch,” Dan murmured. He wouldn’t have asked her to do that anyway, he would’ve insisted that he be the one to sleep out in the living room, but it looked like they would be sharing the bed after all. In spite of his small outburst from earlier, Dan was glad about that. He felt the same pull to be physically close, even if their minds weren’t fully on the same page yet. He pressed a soft kiss to Tatum’s lips and gently squeezed the back of her neck. “C’mon, let’s get some sleep.”
Despite the fact that things were far from fixed, Tatum was still proud of herself for not storming off and stubbornly going to bed without trying to work things out. She hated it when Dan was angry, especially with her. It was worse than when her parents would be upset with her, probably because she actually cared what Dan thought of her. The anger from her actions would linger but Tatum wanted so desperately to earn his forgiveness and she didn’t think she could deal with the two of them going to bed tonight upset with each other. “Sleep,” she murmured in agreement before pressing another kiss to his lips. She could foresee more arguments in their future, but if they could work them out, maybe they could work out the bigger stuff too.