Behind him, Grant shrugged. “Metaphor got away from me, I guess.”
“I don’t mind being called a princess,” Sunny smiled wryly. That sounded about right. He wasdefinitelyin distress right now, damsel or not.
He just didn’t want Grant to know that. Grant deserved to have had something nice without feeling bad about it later. This wasn’t his fault.
“I’ll grab my stuff,” Sunny said before Grant had a chance to respond to that.
“I’ll meet you in the car. Once I’ve gotten all the snow off it.”
Sunny snorted. “Do you know how?”
Grant nodded. “Not myactualfirst rodeo. There’s just a little more than I’m used to.”
Sunny accepted that, turning his head to watch Grant go outside, then heading upstairs to get his things out of Grant’s room.
The worst of it was that he hadn’t managed to keep it a secret. Grant could have had this, and it could have been just between the two of them, but Sunny had to go and screw that up.
He was amazed Grant hadn’t fired him. Gently, of course. He didn’t expect Grant to be harsh about any of this, since it took two. But he also didn’t expect Grant to be socalm.
Maybe he wasn’t. Maybe, on the inside, Grant was doing exactly what Sunny was doing.
Once he’d shoved everything he brought with him back into his overnight bag, Sunny slung it over his shoulder and headed back downstairs, wrapping a blanket around his shoulders as he headed out into the cold.
He could leave it in the car, but he needed the warmth right now. It was the closest thing to a hug he could ask for.
Grant had been mostly successful in clearing the car off, which Sunny realized now was because the snow had started to melt. That felt like a metaphor for something, but he wasn’t in the mood to tease it out.
“Ready to go?” Grant asked, heading around to the driver’s side door.
Sunny nodded, climbing into the other side and stuffing his bag into the footwell. He wanted to be able to make a quick retreat once they got to his parents’ place.
“Thank you for doing this for me. I could have called a cab,” he said.
On the one hand, it hurt to be so close to what he could have had, but on the other hand, Sunny still wanted to be around Grant.
He’d always want to be around Grant, even if he couldn’t have him the way he wanted. The tight, happy feeling in his chest whenever Grant entered a room wasn’t going away anytime soon.
“This is the least I can do,” Grant said. “You deserve better.”
Sunny swallowed.
Was that an admission that it was all over? An apology? Both?
It was hard to tell, but he knew he had to accept all of it. There was nothing either of them could do to change the circumstances of their lives.
He wasn’t angry. He was just disappointed.
He’d been disappointed enough times in his life that he wasn’t going to let this one get to him.
No matter how much more it hurt.
