“Who knows, he might be gracious about it,” I said as she took the gift box out of my hands.
“Have you met hi—hey!” Sunny had just untied the ribbon from the box and opened the lid to find it empty inside. “What the hell is this?”
“Your ticket out of here,” I told her, deftly taking the ribbon from her hand. “Come closer.”
She hesitated but complied, drifting close enough that I could take her trembling hand in mine. It was red and cold and damp, and her ring finger was going purple. When I grazed the pad of my thumb over a swollen knuckle, she jumped.
“I’m sorry,” she mumbled. “Just... something being stuck on me. In a store. It’s Fat-Girl Nightmare Fuel, even if it is just jewelry.”
“I’m going to un-nightmare this, okay? One second.” I returned my attention to her hand, ignored the curious flutter in my chest at the sight of a ring on her finger, and pushed gingerly at the ring until it lifted from her skin enough for me to slide the edge of the ribbon underneath. After I worked the ribbon all the way under the ring and out the other side, I took the other end and wound it tightly around the rest of Sunny’s finger.
“I have no idea where this is going,” she said. Her hand was shaking.
“Just watch,” I instructed, and used the end of the silk pushed underneath the ring to unwind the ribbon. Slowly, jerkily, the ring scraped its way up her finger, over her knuckle, and then off all the way.
Sunny stared down at her hand like the Virgin Mary had just appeared on her fingernail. “How the fuck...”
“One of Brooklyn’s nurses taught me that trick,” I said, dropping the ring into my pocket and then unwrapping the rest of the ribbon from Sunny’s finger. “She had some swelling in her hands in the last days, and her rings were a problem. This worked like a charm.”
“Oh,” Sunny said, and our eyes met. “I’m so sorry.”
I put the ribbon on the edge of the sink and rubbed Sunny’s finger to make sure the circulation was returning to normal, cradling her hand from below. Her finger now looked so bare without the ring...
... and why was I even noticing that? No. I didn’t need to be noticing what her finger looked like, ring or no ring.
Because we were just roommates now.
Just. Roommates.
“I’m not sorry,” I said and was surprised to realize I meant it. “That little trick made a hard day a little bit easier, and it was able to help today too.”
A frosty voice came from outside the bathroom. “You have thirty seconds left before I involve the authorities!”
“Can I just crawl out the bathroom window?” Sunny mumbled.
I patted her back. “Never show fear to a man in a bow tie. Kallum told me that once.”
A sniffle of agreement.
“And we’ll use Teddy as a human shield if need be,” I added.
That seemed to reassure her enough to nod her consent, and then we headed out together to return the ring and make our escape.
Four hours and one crooked Christmas tree later, and Sunny was smashed into my shoulder.
She’d been as quivery and anxious as a Chihuahua that had just been to the vet when we got back, and not even the production of dragging in the tree and setting it up in the small parlor that we used as the family room seemed to calm her down. I hadn’t wanted to leave her alone when she was clearly still so shaken up, so I’d suggested watching some Christmas movies together for screenplay research, and she’d eagerly agreed.
And now as we started movie number two, she’d started leaning against me, smelling like coconut and heaven.
“Is this okay?” she asked. “Touching?”
I should be the one asking her that. Somewhere, somehow, the tables had turned, and we’d gone from me thinking that she didn’t want me to her beingin lovewith me. I’d been the one with the case of unrequited longing, and now suddenly, I wasn’t the one... requiting.
And I wished that I could make her see that if I could love her, I would, but I could no more love someone again than I could walk through a wall at someone’s command. It was a law of physics; it was molecular; I was broken at the quantum level.
And she was here askingmeif it was okay if we cuddled.
Fuck me.
