Descent (Black Heart Romance presents Heaven & Hell)

It reminds me of his story about the flies and the toxic lake. Maybe he’s not the most traditional
place in the world to seek refuge, but maybe he is the right one for me.
It will take time to know for sure, of course, but given we are apparently engaged and having a
baby together, it seems like I’ll get plenty of it.
In the car on the way home, Calvin has to return a few work emails and one phone call since he
took the day off to go meet my mom.
I get tired of fighting pirates and draw out the little pad of paper I always keep in my purse in
case there’s an idea I need to sketch.
Since Calvin told me to cut my workload in half, I don’t have any pressing projects to work on
right now. I’ll start a new one next week, but I’ll have plenty of time to finish it—as long as Calvin
doesn’t haul me off to another country, anyway.
I don’t realize how long I’ve been sketching until we’re back in the city. I only have a pencil to
work with so there’s no color in the drawing, but I dust off the page and look at my handiwork.
And adorable little fly buzzes across the page. I smile faintly.
I wonder where he’s going.
Maybe home to the lake. He’s a brave little fly, daring to go where no one else dares go…
I tilt my head and look at him, then decide he needs eyebrows.
No, flies don’t have eyebrows, but my fly isn’t a realistic insect, he’s a cute, child-friendly
version. He’s adorable, the kind of cute little fly guy you can see going off on big adventures as he
grows up in this big, unusual world.
“What’s that you’re drawing?” Calvin asks.
I hold up my notebook to show him. “Isn’t he cute?”
He smiles faintly. “He is.”
I put the notebook back down on my lap. “I think I’ll call him Eli.”
“That’s a nice name.”
I nod. “I’ve always liked it. Maybe if we have a boy we could name him Elias and call him Eli. I
could paint a mural on the wall in his bedroom.”
Calvin shakes his head, which surprises me. At first, I think he hates the name Elias, but then he
says, “A boy is out of the question. Cutler men are too much trouble.”
I choke on a burst of laughter, but then I realize he’s serious. “Oh. Oh, honey. You do realize you
can’t dictate the sex of our baby, right?”
Disinterested in that take on reality, he swipes his phone screen without even looking up. “We’re