Chapter 2: Grow Up

"Baby!" Birdy called out as she entered the apartment, hoping that her boyfriend would answer. "I'm home."

She bent down and pulled her boots off her feet before straightening up and hanging her coat on the rack at the back of the door. She turned and walked into their small kitchen, noting that he wasn't in there and everything was untouched from when she'd made breakfast that morning.

"Dale?" she called out questioningly as she walked further into the cozy apartment.

The TV was playing quietly in the background and the lights were dimmed slightly so that she couldn't really see the various picture frames on the walls. She could still see the silver glint off the full clothing rack she had pushed up against the wall. Birdy noticed that there was a half-empty beer bottle sitting on the coffee table in front of the TV, but no other indication that Dale was home.

She smiled happily as he emerged from the bathroom with wet hair and a towel wrapped around his waist. Birdy skipped toward him and placed her hands on his chest, reaching up on her toes to place a sweet kiss on his lips. She frowned when she pulled back and saw his stoic expression.

"What's wrong?" she asked as he pulled away and turned around, walking into their bedroom. Birdy followed after him in worry and stopped at the door, her sock-covered feet digging into the plush carpet.

"Where were you?" Dale asked as he dropped the towel and put on the underwear and pair of jeans that had been lying on the bed.

Birdy frowned in confusion. "Didn't you get my text? I was doing a job for Kit."

Dale sighed deeply before pulling a shirt over his head. "You're always doing a job for Kit or Luca. They seem to take priority over our relationship these days, I can also smell the liquor on your breath."

Birdy's hand flew to cover her mouth self-consciously before she frowned even deeper. "We had a few glasses of champagne. What is the attitude about? I'm out working, not partying with friends or something."

Dale chuckled darkly. "You could have fooled me. You're falling behind on your duties at home meanwhile, like dinner. You were supposed to be making it tonight."

"That's why I texted you," Birdy responded calmly, despite feeling irritated by the direction of the conversation. "You can figure out what to do for dinner for one night. You're an adult."

Dale sighed heavily as he sat on the bed and started pulling on socks and shoes. "After a long day at work, earning money for us, I just want to come home and relax. Not start scavenging for dinner."

"I work too, " Birdy snapped, finally unable to keep calm. "You're a grown man. You could have ordered in."

"What you have isn't a job Birdy," Dale said scornfully. "It's a hobby. The least you can do while I'm paying the bills is cook and clean."

Birdy flinched slightly, hurt by his words. "This is not a hobby, you know how far I've come and how hard I've worked to get here."

"To get here where?" Dale said with a laugh. "I've been promoted a few times since we graduated and you're only really getting a start now."

Birdy's lips flattened in a thin line as she felt hurt well up within her. The career path that she'd chosen wasn't an easy one, but she had known that and so had he. She had wanted nothing more than to design clothes and style people since she was a young child, something Dale had always known too.

"After ten years together, I would hope that my partner would be more supportive than this," Birdy finally said disappointedly. "I always support you with your career."

"After ten years together, you would think that you'd finally put this childish stuff behind you and grow up," Dale remarked drily, his gaze cold and steely.

"Grow up?" Birdy echoed cluelessly. "What do you mean grow up?"

"For God's sake, look at yourself!" Dale exclaimed in an exasperated tone, jumping off the bed now that he was fully dressed. "Your hair is blue! That's why I had to stop inviting you to corporate events, no one is going to take me seriously with a partner with blue hair."

Birdy recoiled, shock mingling with hurt and confusion. Dale had never given any indication that he had a problem with her hair, her career, or anything else. She couldn't believe that everything was coming out now because she'd worked late one night and not made him dinner.

"You said they stopped inviting partners to those events," Birdy muttered in confusion as she tried to wrap her head around what she was hearing.

Dale shrugged unrepentantly. "You may not care about having a real career but I do. I honestly thought that you would be done with all this sh*t by now. Why do you think we aren't engaged after ten years together?"

"What?" Birdy asked dumbly, as she felt her blood run cold.

Her worst fears had just been confirmed. Considering that they were high school sweethearts, Birdy had always expected them to be married by the time they were twenty-eight. Instead, they were both turning twenty eight without even a proposal in sight.

She'd started wondering if maybe Dale secretly didn't want to marry her, but other than not proposing, he had never given her reason to believe that to be true. He had always talked to her about their future together, he'd always seemed supportive of her dreams and desires.

It seemed that nothing was as she'd thought this whole time.

"I can't get married to someone who hasn't outgrown their rebellious teen phase," Dale said coldly. "I'm very happy for you to have normal hair and even be a stay-at-home-wife until we have kids, but this fashion dream is just embarrassing."

"So," Birdy said slowly. "Unless I give up my personality and my dreams, you won't ever marry me?"

Dale sighed in a long-suffering manner and frowned. "That's a little dramatic. I just want you to be an equal partner in this relationship."

Birdy laughed, the sound hollow. "Whether you choose to see it or not, I am an equal partner. I still contribute toward bills and do most of the housework."

Dale looked at Birdy and she stared back at him dully, the tension mounting in the silence.

"I've told you what I need from you for us to move forward," Dale finally said impatiently. "It's up to you what you want to do."

"I'm not changing a d*mn thing about myself," Birdy said in a firm tone, her glare fiery.

"Then I guess this is it," Dale said with a shrug as he brushed past Birdy, his shoulder knocking hers.

"Excuse me?" Birdy said as she turned and faced him in anger. "This is it?"

"You can't afford this apartment alone, so I'll be staying and you'll have to find somewhere else," Dale said calmly. "I'll give you the night to get your stuff together and make a plan."

"Where are you going?" Birdy asked, still shocked at the sequence of events.

"Dinner," Dale said shortly. "I still haven't eaten."

He didn't wait for Birdy's response before turning and walking away, leaving her standing in the short hallway from the bedroom to the living room frozen in shock. Her mind flooded with a million thoughts and feelings.

Birdy felt her legs give out from under her as she heard the click of the front door shutting behind Dale as he left. She sank to the carpeted floor slowly, coming to a rest on her knees, her eyes still locked on the direction Dale had gone in.

She started shutting down as she knelt there, a sort of calm and numbness creeping over her until she was able to stand and start gathering her things. The whole encounter felt like some kind of surrealist nightmare - the only relationship she'd ever had in her life was over.

Over ten years together, building a life together, getting to know one another - all that gone in less than an hour. It was almost unbelievable.

Dale had been her first and only everything - her first kiss, her first sexual partner, her first boyfriend. She had never pictured a future without him in it, ever. She'd dreamed of being married to Dale and having a family with him from the moment they had started dating.

She could barely believe that it was all over. She could hardly believe that the man who'd left here was the man she'd been with for nearly half of her life. The man she'd dated all through college, the man she'd moved into the city with when they only had two cents to rub together. The man who had promised her the world over and over again only to break her heart callously.

She had never imagined that she could lose him, lose it all.