“Twenty thousand.”
“What?” Grey thought she was going to fall off the stairs.
He shrugged. “That’s how much he said it would sell for.”
“There’s, like, a hundred photos of us full-on fucking online already. Whocaresif he sells it?”
Ethan looked nonplussed.
“Sorry, I thought…I didn’t want to make things worse for you.”
Grey drew her knees up to her chest and rested her head in her hands. Exhaustion swept over her.
“No, I’m sorry. Thank you. Thank you for doing that. That’s like the nicest fucking thing anyone’s ever done for me. What thefuck,Ethan.” She slid her hands down her face, laughing in disbelief. “This whole thing is fucking crazy. What are you saying to me right now? What do you want from me?”
Ethan ran his hands through his hair.
“I want to be with you. Whatever that means. We can figure it out.”
Grey closed her eyes, ayesdancing on the tip of her tongue. But when she opened her mouth, everything that came attached to that tiny word felt too huge and heavy to process.
“I…I don’t know. I need some time. I need to think. Everything…it’s all a lot.” She turned to him. “Is that okay?”
He nodded, his face placid. Controlled.
“Of course.”
She leaned over and brushed her lips over his, using every last ounce of self-control to keep it brief and not lean in deeper. He kissed her back, but remained where he was, too. When she pulled away, he stood up.
“One sec. I have something in the car for you.”
When he returned, he had a large cardboard tube tucked under his arm. She took it, looking at him quizzically.
“What is this?”
“Happy birthday. Sorry, I should have wrapped it.”
“You didn’t have to get me anything. I mean, thank you.” Shefelt awkward all of a sudden. She didn’t want him to leave, but he had to. She’d rejected him. Sort of.
She stood up, too.
“I, um…okay. I’ll see you…we’ll talk later.”
“Okay.” His tone was unreadable. She wanted to walk with him to his car, but all she could do was stand there, watching him disappear into the darkness.
When Grey let herself back into the house, Kamilah was lurking nervously next to the front door. Her brow knitted in concern when she saw Grey was alone.
“Are you okay? Was he…should I not have? I didn’t want to meddle. I just thought…you seemed like you were struggling.”
Grey shook her head. “It’s okay. It needed to happen. I couldn’t run away forever.”
“What did he say?”
“He wants to get back together. Or get together for the first time, I guess.”
“And…you don’t?”
Grey thought back to the camera flashing feet away from her front door. She swallowed. “I have no fucking idea what I want.”
