Page 322 of End Game

Love you. Stop buying things.

Dex

NO PROMISES

I rest my head against Micah's shoulder.

Tomorrow is just February fifteenth.

Griffin will still be working.

Dex will still be obnoxious.

Ronan will still insist Valentine's Day is an economically manipulative social construct despite having spent God knows how long comparing tracking motors—and apparently delaying an I-love-you because he refused to let Hallmark influence the timing.

Micah and I will still wear bracelets that match Dex's in a way nobody else needs to.

And sometime soon, Griffin is taking me on a date because February thirteenth wasn't a consolation prize.

Maybe that is the thing we’re finally learning.

Equal does not mean everyone gets the same night.

The same gift.

The same kind of sex.

The same amount of noise.

The same words at the same time.

It means nobody has to become interchangeable to prove they matter.

My phone buzzes one more time.

Griffin

Finally sitting down. How was the rest of your day?

I smile.

Then send him a picture.

The tulips.

The bracelets.

The ridiculous dying balloon.

Ronan's creator stand.

All of it.

I consider telling him about Ronan.

Then stop.

Not because it's a secret.