A daughter.
Unconsciously, he bit down on his bottom lip as he let the idea wash over him, sure that Dionisia was watching for any sign of a reaction and not wanting to look either too pleased or too panicked, particularly not if she had feared his reaction. Best to keep an even keel, then: to somehow consider how the addition of a daughter would shift the state of their lives and the balance of their relationship again, without getting carried away with the better or worse of it.
It was a bold commitment, though. He might’ve asked if she was truly sure again, but he scolded himself silently for it and held his tongue instead: she had always been perfectly honest with him, so he really ought to trust her on this. Dionisia must have spent a long time thinking before telling him so seriously, too. The way she had floated it did not much make it seem like a passing whim.
He exhaled. “And I want what you want,” he said steadily, glad at least that affirming that was easy. Whatever made her happy. But if only she would look up again, Ari thought, twining his hands together on his lap - it had to be better to have a conversation of this magnitude being able to look each other in the eye, however awkward or unexpected it was.
That said, he might have stolen a glance up at the ceiling before tackling the next issue. “Did you mean... with me?” Ari ventured finally. “Or...?” Perhaps this was actually an attempt to tell him that she had found someone else she wanted to be with, that she was thinking of embarking upon an affair of some kind? If that was why she had worried so, she oughtn’t have. He had already told her as much that he didn't mind, hadn’t he? (In that case it would have been a strange broaching of the subject, though, to make it about a daughter if she did not want one.) And he would be surprised if she did mean him, but that wasn’t to say he would turn her down if she did - he did not have much of a right to refuse anything she wanted, all things considered.
Unconsciously, he bit down on his bottom lip as he let the idea wash over him, sure that Dionisia was watching for any sign of a reaction and not wanting to look either too pleased or too panicked, particularly not if she had feared his reaction. Best to keep an even keel, then: to somehow consider how the addition of a daughter would shift the state of their lives and the balance of their relationship again, without getting carried away with the better or worse of it.
It was a bold commitment, though. He might’ve asked if she was truly sure again, but he scolded himself silently for it and held his tongue instead: she had always been perfectly honest with him, so he really ought to trust her on this. Dionisia must have spent a long time thinking before telling him so seriously, too. The way she had floated it did not much make it seem like a passing whim.
He exhaled. “And I want what you want,” he said steadily, glad at least that affirming that was easy. Whatever made her happy. But if only she would look up again, Ari thought, twining his hands together on his lap - it had to be better to have a conversation of this magnitude being able to look each other in the eye, however awkward or unexpected it was.
That said, he might have stolen a glance up at the ceiling before tackling the next issue. “Did you mean... with me?” Ari ventured finally. “Or...?” Perhaps this was actually an attempt to tell him that she had found someone else she wanted to be with, that she was thinking of embarking upon an affair of some kind? If that was why she had worried so, she oughtn’t have. He had already told her as much that he didn't mind, hadn’t he? (In that case it would have been a strange broaching of the subject, though, to make it about a daughter if she did not want one.) And he would be surprised if she did mean him, but that wasn’t to say he would turn her down if she did - he did not have much of a right to refuse anything she wanted, all things considered.
