I fled from the apartment.
There was an outdoor landing here. The night air skittered over the concrete stairs. It was cold.
“Oh no,” said Griffin. “I’m not ready for you to attack me too.”
“I wasn’t going to,” I said. I paused. “I’m sorry. I guess I jumped to conclusions.”
“Yeah, well, she didn’t make it easy for you,” he said. “I should have explained the situation better to you before we got here.”
“That would have been good,” I said.
We were quiet. I shuddered in the cold, my teeth knocking against each other.
Griffin pulled me against him. “You’re always cold,” he murmured.
I was grateful for his warmth. And for how solid he seemed. He could hold me up.
“You really think I would have done something like that?” he said. “Run off on my own kid?”
“I...”
“You don’t think very highly of me, do you?”
Guilt surged through me. “I didn’t want to think it. It didn’t seem right. But it seemed like it was true. It seemed like there was all this evidence.”
“I wouldn’t, you know,” he said. “I don’t know if I’ll ever have children, but if I did, I would never leave them behind.”
Never have kids... “Griffin, did you tell her you were asexual?”
He sucked in a sharp breath.
I waited.
“Yeah.”
“A-are you?”
“Obviously not,” he said. He kissed my forehead. His voice was a low rumble. “You woke me up.”
“How?”
“I don’t know.” His mouth found mine. “But you did.” His tongue teased its way against mine.
I sighed against him. His kisses were fluid and too, too sweet. But this was what he always did. He used them to distract me. I pulled away. “You can’t keep running from this.”
“Running from what?”
“From whatever you won’t tell me,” I said. “She asked if we were having sex.”
“That’s none of her business,” he said.
“You told her, didn’t you? You told her whatever it is. Whatever you won’t tell me.”
He let go of me in frustration. “No, doll, I didn’t. I don’t talk about it. I’ve never talked about it. And this is hardly the time.”
He was right. I was pestering him about why we weren’t having sex, and that wasn’t the most pressing problem we had. We were in much worse shape than that.
I sighed. “Well, we can’t stay here.”
“No,” he said. “I guess we can’t.”
* * *
“What are you doing, Griff?” said Beth.
Griffin was grabbing his pack, the one he always carried, and throwing it over his shoulder. I picked up my duffel bag too. “We’re leaving.”
“Leaving?” she said. She wedged herself in front of him. “Look, forget I said anything. You can’t stay on the run. You need to lie low for a while. They’re going to catch you.”
“What do you care?” said Griffin. “She’s just Frank’s daughter, right?”
“That’s not fair,” she said. She turned to me. “I want you both to stay. At least for the night. Where are you going to go right now?”
“I don’t know,” said Griffin. “We’ll figure it out. Don’t worry about it.”
“Of course I’m worried about it.”
He pushed past her. “Well, don’t.”
She put a hand to her forehead. “I’m sorry. I never meant—”
“Drop it,” said Griffin. “You’ve said enough.”
Tears appeared in her eyes.
Despite myself, my heart went out to her. She wasn’t a bad person. She just had it bad for Griffin. If he’d never wanted me back, might I have become just like her?
He started toward the door.