Page 49 of Smoke and Glitter

"You know that?"

"She knows what this is."

"Does she?"

His answer comes faster.

"It's casual, Bex. No strings. No labels. We aren't serious. I like it that way."

The room keeps going around me.

The refrigerator hums behind the bar. Somebody moves something heavy in the back. A car passes outside.

Casual.

No strings.

Not serious.

Bex says his name again, and this time there's no edge in it.

"Sam."

"I'm not the reason she moved here."

I close my eyes.

"She moved here for Summer. She would've come anyway."

"Does that even matter?"

"Yes."

Too fast.

Then his voice changes.

"And she's going to leave again."

Bex doesn't answer.

Sam keeps going.

"Somebody's going to offer her New York, Europe, London or whatever comes next, and she's going to take it. She should take it."

My hand slips against the chair leg.

London.

I turned it down in his bed while his arm was around me.

He doesn't know that.

"You don't know she'll leave," Bex says.

"I know her."

The words almost pull a laugh out of me.