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“Exactly,” he said, laughing, too. “Uh, but I wanted to talk to you because I want to offer to, like, buy you out of the ideas you gave me? I’ll make you an offer, and if you want more, you ask for more—”
“What?” She waved him off. “Those ideas were free.”
“They were really good ideas,” he said. “You’re good at that. At knowing what people need and giving it to them. At seeing what would make people feel like they belong.”
She took a drink of beer. “Maybe Iamgood at that. Can you make that a career?”
He laughed. “I don’t know. I would offer for you to come work for me, but there is no way I can pay anyone at all for the next two years. No wiggle room. So…” He shrugged. “I mean, I know this was a scheme we did together, but—”
“No, this was yours,” she said. “You know, the funny thing is, I’ve spent so much of my life desperately trying to make other people happy in a wild panic. And I realize now that I’ve spent almost no time even trying to think about whatIwant.”
“Well, you should do that,” he said.
“You know who cares about what I want?” she said.
“Who?”
“You,” she said, grinning at him.
“Yeah,” he said, grinning back. “That’s true. I do.”
“What if we go off hiatus?” she said. “That something we could talk about?”
“I just told you that I will have no life for the next two years,” he said.
“Right,” she said, giggling. “Are you turning me down? Seriously?”
“No, I’m not. I’m just explaining—”
“Because after all of this, Niles, if we don’t end up together, I think it would be such an anti-climax, don’t you?”
“Well…” He picked up his beer. “I mean, we’re both in better places. I have this restaurant. You have an apartment on your own. We’ve grown as people. We’ve dealt with a lot of our shit. Asking for romantic bliss on top of that? I mean, that’s a tall order. Who gets all that, anyway? Does anyone have a life that’s that perfect?”
“You’re right,” she said, snickering. “It’d be very unrealistic.”
“Yeah, forget that,” he said.
“Hiatus all the way,” she said.
“Indefinite hiatus.”
“Do you want to see my new apartment?” she said.
“I could be into that, sure.”
“You want to see my newbedroom?”
He chuckled into his beer. “You know, the twists and turns in this conversation—”
“You want to venom me to my bed in my new bedroom and just have your way with me?” She waggled her eyebrows.
He sucked in a sharp breath.
She ran her upper teeth over her bottom lip.
“Well,” he said, and his voice was a little strained, “let me finish my beer.”
“YOU’RE TOO GOODto me,” Niles moaned into the crook of her neck. It was later. They were in her bed in her new apartment.
