“Why did you want to put that story out there in the first place?”
He pauses, contemplating the question. “Revenge, I suppose. I mean, I didn’t think—not for a second—that she wasyouragent. But I know the publishing world is pretty close-knit, and word spreads fast. I thought maybe she’d see it in print somewhere and read it and maybe,just maybe, she’d feel like an asshole when she saw it from a bird’s eye view like that.”
“Uh huh.”
“Shehurtme. I don’t know. I think I just wanted to hurt her back,” he says. “To give her a little taste of her own medicine, you know?” My heart’s immediate reaction is to break a little because I am intimately familiar with that feeling.
“I understand,” I tell him.
“But, my God, the last thing I ever wanted was to jeopardize your career.”
“No, I’m sure,” I say. “How did you leave things?”
“She hung up on me.”
“Ahh. Wonderful.”
“I’m sure she’ll call you,” he says.
“I mean, at some point, she has to.”
“I’m sorry, Gracie. I never meant for any of this to happen.”
“I’m sorry too,” I say.
Our words hang in the air, suspended like particles of dust floating aimlessly in a ray of sunlight. My head is too dizzy to digest them or understand their implications, so instead of speaking, I remain silent, listening to the sound of his breathing on the other end of the line.
Finally, Colin speaks. “What does this mean for us?”
“What do you mean?”
“Are we still…” His voice trails off.
“Together?” I ask.
“Yeah.”
“Let me just figure out what’s going on with her first—”
“Right. Of course,” he says.
“It’s not that I don’t—”
“No,” he interrupts. “I get it.”
“Colin—”
“No worries, Grace. Just let me know when it’s all straightened out.”
“Right.”
“I’m here if you need me, of course.”
“Of course,” I echo.
“Okay,” he says.
“Okay.”
