Page 135 of Seeing Grayscale

With a heavy sigh, he tugs at his hair before conceding. “You made banana bread.”

“Don’t,” I growl. My stomach swoops violently, and it isn’t the typical sensation I get around him. Dread consumes me, and this pitiful distraction tactic isn’t going to work on me.

“Fine. I won’t.” Again, he nervously pushes his hair back. Another swallow. Another breath. “I have to find different accommodations for you.”

Accommodations.

Transactional.

“My dad made some valid points about the news finding out about you staying with me. It looks…well, it doesn’t matter, but the point is, we don’t want it sending the wrong idea.”

Wrong idea.

Of course it was.

“It’s just…not done. What we are doing—whatIdid. I might not be a state official, but my dad is…and by extension, those rules and expectations apply to me. A temporary situation is what I’ll tell the media just to get them off our backs.”

Temporary situation.

I knew it.

“That doesn’t mean I won’t still help you, and it doesn’t mean we have to stop seeing each other. We just can’t…be together under the same roof.”

We can’t be together.

He promised we would.

“Do you understand? I’ll make sure you have a place to go. I’ll come to see you every day. But I’ll have to put on a good show of coming home at night, so it looks like we went our separate ways.”

Separate ways.

Like we should've gone from the start.

“Gray?” I blink, the corked bottle holding all my emotions rumbling and ready to burst. “All this means is you’ll be in a different place. I’m not leaving you.” I start to shake again, but he keeps fuckingtalking. He keeps hurting me and won’tstop.“I’m trying to make this work for everyone. I think it’ll work until I’m ready.”

Until he’sready?

Until he’sfucking ready?!

“You’ll never be ready!” I blow up. “You have been doing this for fifteen years! Do you fucking hear yourself? You want tohide mejust to make your dad happy? The dad who manipulates you—who doesn’t give a fuck about you?”

“He loves me!” he snaps. “You weren’t there, alright? He…he said it. And I am not ready to break his heart.”

“But you are perfectly fine breakingmine,” I cry, tears streaming down my cheeks. “What am I supposed to do without you? Huh? Tell me!”

“You still have me! I’m not going anywhere. This is just a relocation!”

“Like I’m a fucking rat in your attic that you don’t have the balls to kill! Fuck you!Fuck you.” I push to my feet, shove open the bedroom door, and go to grab my bag, but then I think better of it.

I know what’ll happen if I take it.

I know what’s waiting for me.

“How can you not see that I’m trying? You want me just to throw away everything like that.” Hunter snaps his fingers. “How is that fair?”

“The fact you even view coming out asthrowing everything awayshould be a really big fucking clue, man.” I rummage through the bag and pull the phone charger out, and then I swipe my wallet off the nightstand.

I don’t know how long he’ll let me keep my phone, but if I can get a job before he disconnects it, that’ll help.

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