Page 177 of Finding Us
“Because you can buy me dinner now?” I meant it jokingly but he doesn’t take it that way. His face is serious.
“That’s not what I meant. You can pay. I don’t care.”
“Garret, no. I was kidding. I’d like you to take me to dinner.” I smile again, trying to keep the mood light.
But he remains serious, his eyes on mine. “When I was out earlier, I opened a bank account in both our names. I brought the application home for you to sign.”
I was hoping the money discussion would wait until later but I guess it’s happening now.
“I don’t need to be on the account. Just keep it in your name.”
“Jade, you were right. There is no his and hers. It’s our money and you should be on the account.”
“I don’t think I want to be. I thought about it and I’d rather have that money just be yours.”
“Why?”
“Because I want you to buy me roses. And take me to dinner.”
“What are you talking about? What does that—”
“Never mind. The money is yours, Garret. Just put it in your own account. I was thinking that maybe I’ll tell Grace that I’m not going to use that credit card anymore. It’s nice of her to offer it to me but I’d rather just have us take some money and open an account in both our names and use that to pay bills or buy stuff.”
“We can do that with the money I just got. I’ll just put some of it in a joint account.”
“I don’t care where it comes from. It doesn’t matter. I just don’t want to fight about this. We have millions of dollars and the last thing we should argue about is money.”
“I know. I was being stupid. I’m so used to being the one with money that when we switched roles I wasn’t prepared for it. I wanted to be able to do stuff for you, like buy you chocolates or surprise you with flowers, and I felt like I wasn’t able to do those things anymore.”
“I get that now. That’s why you need your own account. We both do.”
He smiles. “Did you talk to my dad about this?”
I feel my face heating up. I didn’t want Garret to know about that. “How did you know I talked to your dad?”
“He called me before I found you on the beach and told me he’d just talked to you.”
“I called him. Sorry. I didn’t know who else to talk to.”
“It’s okay. You can talk to him.” Garret’s still smiling. He likes that I get along with his dad. “What were you guys saying about me?”
“Who said we talked about you? Maybe we talked about something else.”
He moves his hand to my lower back and pulls me closer. “I know you talked about me. So what did my dad say?”
“I can’t tell you.”
“So you admit you talked about me?”
“Okay, fine, we talked about you, but I’m not telling you what he said. Except I did forget to ask him about something.”
“Why don’t you just askme?” He laughs. “If it’s about me I should be able to answer.”
“He said you invested some money last year and that you did really well.”
“Yeah, that’s true. So what about it?”
“You invested in the stock market? How did you know how to do that?”
