“Then you soak it in remover and wrap it around your finger,” he said, demonstrating how on his own nail. “And leave it for about a minute. Then it just wipes right off. Otherwise you have glitter nails until it all chips off, which isn’t good for your natural nails.”
“How do you know so much about this?” Hope asked.
Sunny smiled to himself. “I’ve been painting my nails for ten years.”
“Wow,” Hope said. “You’re really old.”
Sunny burst into laughter, unable to help himself. Hewasold, he supposed, compared to Hope.
“Thanks, I think,” Sunny said, glancing over to Grant just in time to catch him watching them. He smiled, and to his relief, Grant smiled back.
Maybe not all was lost.
Grant waved the gift Sunny had put under the tree for him, still in its paper, and then strode over to the couch to sit down on Sunny’s other side.
Joon and Julia were sharing an armchair, which was incredibly cute. They seemed to have the kind of relationship Sunny would have loved.
“Can I open this?” Grant asked.
“It’s got your name on it,” Sunny responded, excited to see his reaction. He’d known it was the perfect gift the moment he’d seen it, and Grant had been so good to him that he couldn’t resist.
Grant grinned like a little boy, tearing the paper off eagerly. He was already wearing a brand new scarf, which Sunny assumed had been a gift from Hope, considering how bright it was.
It suited him. Grant wore a lot of muted colors, for obvious reasons, but he could have afforded to branch out. Sunny would have loved to fill his wardrobe with loud shirts and clashing ties. He could pull it off.
“Oh,” Grant said softly as he realized what he was holding. “This is…”
It was a book of black-and-white landscape photography, and when Sunny had flipped through it, he’d known it was something Grant needed to own.
“Perfect,” Grant finished after a moment, running his fingers over the shortGrant, this made me think of you, Merry Christmas from Sunnyinscription.
He’d thought about puttinglove, Sunny, but it had seemed like too much at the time.
Now…
He was falling for Grant, hard and fast. He knew it. That was why it had hurt so much to be afraid that Grant wouldn’t want to explain him to his family.
“I’m glad you like it,” Sunny said softly, wiping the polish off his nails one by one and then offering his hand to Hope to let her get to work. “Merry Christmas.”
Grant smiled at him, squeezing his knee as he stood. It was the smallest of gestures, but it spoke volumes.
Things weren’t over yet. Grant still wanted to be near him.
That was all Sunny could ask for right now.
