"You know I can't."
"Then the business isn't ready for it."
That was the sentence that lit the match. Sarah stepped toward me.
"You are so controlling."
"Because I won't pay for a trip?"
"Because everything has strings with you."
"What strings?"
"You pay the bills and think that means you get a vote on my life."
"I get a vote on what I pay for."
"See? Exactly."
"Sarah, that's not control. That's an adult boundary."
She laughed.
"Boundary. Another therapy word men use when they want to punish women."
I felt something inside me start to detach.
"What do you think I offer you?"
She blinked.
"What?"
"You keep saying I don't support you. I don't believe in you. I control you. So tell me what you think I actually contribute to this relationship."
She was already angry enough to answer honestly.
"Stability."
"Okay."
"Bills. Predictability."
"Anything else?"
"God, Mark, don't make this pathetic."
"Anything else?"
She stared at me. Then she said, "You think because you pay the rent and the car and everything else, you own me."
"I've never said that."
"You don't have to. It's how you act."
"I offer you a home. I offer stability. I offer a life where you have had a full year to build a business without worrying about groceries or health insurance or whether rent clears. I have never asked you to repay me."
"Exactly."
"Exactly what?"