“How much is half a million pounds in real money?”
“I take it you mean American dollars?” Kit asked, nudging his suitcase closed with his foot. “The pound is worth about twenty or thirty percent more than the dollar on any given day, so… say six hundred thousand dollars. Why do you ask?”
Six hundred thousand dollars.
Holy shit.
“Your mom offered me that much to get in a cab and leave,” I said in a daze.
Six hundred thousand dollars.
I’d known it had to be a lot of money, but that… was a lot of money.
“… and you didn’t take it?” Kit asked, blinking at me.
“Obviously not!” I said.
Even now that I knew how much it really was, I wouldn’t have accepted it. I didn’tneedthe money, I got by just fine on my salary.
I did need my best friend, though.
“What would you have thought if she’d told you I’d walked away for money?”
“I would’ve thought you’d finally gotten a tangible benefit out of this arrangement,” Kit said, sitting down heavily next to me. “You really turned down half a million pounds for me?”
“Well,” I said, looking down at my knees. “I didn’t know how much it was at the time.”
“But you must have had a fair idea that it was an awful lot of money.”
I shrugged. “Maybe.”
Should I have taken it? I couldn’t handle the thought of Kit being hurt like that. Thinking I cared more about something as stupid asmoneythan I cared about him and his feelings.
“Then why not?” Kit asked. “You’d certainly have more and nobler use for it than she would.”
“Because you’re my boyfriend?” I said, looking over at him.
Kit blinked at me again, a milder version of the same look his mother had given me. Like I was a unicorn.
Only Kit thought unicorns were really,reallycool.
“I am?” he asked softly.
“Well… I mean, maybe you’re not, I dunno, I don’t mean to… unilaterally decide what our relationship is now.” I gestured vaguely, unsure what I was even saying. “But I thought maybe—”
“I’d like to be,” Kit interrupted. “Very much.”
I looked down at my knees, a hopeful smile tugging at my lips.
Kit wanted to be my boyfriendvery much.
That felt good.
“So. Boyfriends?”
“Boyfriends,” Kit agreed.
With a surge of affection, I reached out and slipped my hand into his on the bed between us, a little rush of happiness coursing from my fingertips to my heart as he linked our fingers together.
