“Have you thought about leaving?”
Kyle’s question shook me from my thoughts.I frowned at him.“Like, for good?”
He shrugged, looking uncomfortable.“It worked for Flynn.”
It hadn’t, of course.Not financially; not in terms of the sort of freedom he’d gone to the city expecting.Flynn had found a guy he liked, and he had a nice apartment and a nice car, but none of those things came without strings attached.Something I couldn’t explain to my friends, not without breaking his confidence.
“Are you trying to get rid of me?”I asked instead.
Kyle frowned into his cider.“It’s just...we all know there’d be more guys there.Guys who you might be into.”
“Not only closet-case middle-aged farmers in loveless marriages looking to cheat, y’mean?”
“Right,” he agreed, “that.”
I chuckled.It wasn’t like I made a frequent habit of complaining about the potential dating pool - or, more accurately, the potential hookup pool - around town, but there’d been the occasional, usually-alcohol-fueled bitching session in the past.Enough that Catherine and Kyle knew better than to expect me to find a boyfriend locally.
“I’d need money, so much more money, if I was going to move,” I pointed out.
Kyle nodded, sagely, and seemed content to let the topic drop, but that only left the reins for Catherine to pick up.
“But, if you had a job.Or savings, or whatever...would you?”
“Would I what?”
She rolled her eyes.“Would you want to move?Like, to the city.Like Flynn did.”
I didn’t much appreciate the connection she was drawing, between moving away and it being to where Flynn was.Expressing that, though, would leave her thinking there was a deeper story, if only she went digging for it.Catherine could be merciless when she thought you were skipping details.
“It’d be a very different pace of life,” I hedged, taking a drink.
“Right, but...”
The question hung between us.Eventually, I realized, I was going to have to supply at least some sort of answer.
“There’d have to be a really big, tangible reason for me to move,” I said, and told myself I had no idea what such a reason might be.
