The medic showed up shortly before Ethan returned. He examined Grey and concluded that it was likely just a sprain, but she should probably get an X-ray when she returned to L.A., just to be safe. He bandaged her ankle and loaded her up with supplies: crutches, ice packs, extra bandages, little individual packets of ibuprofen. Only slightly less glamorous than her swag bag from the Emmys gifting suite.
After he left, Ethan hovered in the doorway.
“Are you okay?”
“More than okay. It’s nothing. Really. Except…” She hesitated. “I’m pretty hungry.”
Ethan exhaled, shaking his head. “Of course. Dinner. I totally forgot.”
He grabbed the room service menu out of the living room and flopped down on the bed, passing it to her. She flipped through it as he peered at it from his spot next to her, his chin dangerously close to brushing her shoulder. She examined the pages forward, then backward, then forward again.
“Any of that grab you?” Ethan asked finally.
“Honestly, the only thing that’s really speaking to me right now is Belgian waffles and bacon, but they only serve breakfast until eleven.” She flipped the page one more time. “I guess I’ll have the shiitake burger. Please.”
Ethan grabbed the menu out of her hand with a dramatic flourish. “You got it.”
He disappeared into the living room to make the call. She hoped he would come back, but she heard the television in the living room buzzing softly through the door.
She used this opportunity to hobble to the bathroom, wash her face, and fumble her way out of her dress and into lounge pants and a tank top. She hadn’t settled back into her position on the bed for long before she heard a knock on the front door, followed by Ethan’s muffled voice. A moment later, he pushed the room service cart into the room and placed one of the trays on the bed next to her.
“That was fast,” she commented, lifting up the lid of the tray to reveal—
She gasped. Two golden-brown Belgian waffles, surrounded by tiny dishes containing fresh berries, maple syrup, and butter. She peeked under the lid of the smaller dish to discover four slices of perfectly crisp bacon.
Grey looked up at him, her mouth open. “How did you—”
Ethan shrugged, trying to look nonchalant, but obviously pleased by her reaction. “I don’t know if you’re aware of this, but I’mveryfamous,” he said. She instantly recognized her words to him from their first dinner together.
She laughed, but only because she suspected she was about to cry. “Glad to see you’re using your powers for good instead of evil. For once.”
“It’s important to maintain balance in the universe.” He picked up the other tray, and turned toward the living room.
“Wait!” she cried out before she could stop herself. He cocked his head, questioning. She’d already opened her big mouth, might as well follow through. “You’re not going to eat with me?”
He froze. Then the side of his mouth crept up slightly.
“Sure. Okay.”
He set his tray on the table, then went out to the living room to gather some pillows from the couch, since all the ones on the bed were either behind her back or under her ankle. He opened the minibar, considered the contents, and pulled out a bottle of beer, popping the top off. He set himself up a respectful distance from her and lifted the lid off his own plate. Grey peered over to see what he’d ordered.
“Is that the shiitake burger?”
He grinned. “It sounded good.”
Grey balanced her plate on her lap and smothered her waffles with toppings. “Want to trade some fries for a piece of bacon?”
“Deal.”
They ate in companionable silence for a few minutes. The waffles were everything Grey had hoped for, and once the edge was taken off her hunger, she began to relax. Maybe it was the cumulative effect of how strange the last two months had been, but something about this felt…comfortable. Natural. Words she definitely didn’t associate with her relationship with Ethan.
“You wanna watch TV or something?” she asked.
Ethan shrugged. “Whatever you want.”
She picked up the remote and started flipping through the channels. An infomercial, a reality show, an old sitcom rerun. She was flipping so fast that she almost missed it: a baby-faced Ethan strutting down a high school hallway in a letterman’s jacket. It was his first starring role, the teen dramedyWhat’s Your Deal?He’d played the secretly sensitive jock who, despite dating the prom queen, found himself falling for the weird artsy girl (equally as gorgeous as the prom queen, of course, just with brown hair and glasses). Grey recognized it instantly.
“Nooooo,” Ethan groaned when he realized what she’d settled on. He leaned over to try to grab the remote out of her hand, but she held it out of reach, laughing.
