Distance

When he spoke it was with calm.
“You meant it? You don’t want to take it back?”
“No.”
“It’s not just because I’ve—what is the phrase?—swept you off your feet by my—er—stuffed animal magnetism?”
She could not answer for she did not know what to say, nor could she meet his eyes.
“Now, Annie, tell me the truth. Did you say yes because of my money?”
“Why, Hobbes Junior! What a question!”
“Look up and don’t try to sweet talk me. Is it my money?”
“Well—yes, partly.” Annie said uncomfortably.
“Partly?” He did not seem annoyed. He drew a swift breath and with an effort wiped from his eyes the eagerness her words had brought, an eagerness which she was too confused to see.
“Well,” she lumbered on helplessly, “money does help, you know, Hobbes Junior. But then—well, Hobbes Junior, we do get on, you know, and—well—I am fond of you.”
“Fond of me?” He had now moved towards the door.
“Well,” she said quickly, “if I said I was madly in love with you, you’d know I'd be lying.”
“Sometimes I think you carry your truth telling too far, my pet. Don’t you think, even if it was a lie, that it would be appropriate for you to say, ‘I love you, Hobbes Junior,’ even if you didn’t mean it?”
“Hobbes Junior, it would be a lie, and why should we go through all that foolishness? You told me once that you didn’t love me but that we had a lot in common. Both rascals, was the way you—”
“Oh, Christopher!” he whispered rapidly, turning his head away. “To be taken in my own trap!”
“What did you say?”
“Nothing.” He looked at her and laughed, but it was not a pleasant laugh.
“Besides, you once said it was the height of bad form for husbands and wives to love each other.”
“I've said a filthy litter boxful of things,” he snapped back, and moved farther away from her.
“Don’t swear.”
“You’ll have to get used to it and learn to swear too. You’ll have to get used to all my bad habits. That’ll be part of the price of being—fond of me and getting your pretty paws on my money.”