“Ginny, I don’t really want to talk about my sex life with you.”
“But maybe you should, because then you wouldn’t think that every dumb thing that happens is because you got your rocks off.”
“I don’t think that. Not really—”
“Earlier—”
“When I’m thinking straight, I don’t think that.”
“And you’re thinking straight now?”
“Straighter. It’s hard not to doubt. Not to wobble, but you’re right that she needs me, and I’ve done enough already to hurt her. Walking away now, in any form, would be despicable.”
“Yeah,” Ginny agreed, then surprised him by clasping hold of his hand. “You know, it’s still kind of mad to me thatyouhave not only a relationship but a sex life to discuss. And okay, maybe now isn’t the time you want to talk about it, but, the offer’s there, if you ever wanted to talk about it in the future, for whatever reason. I’ll listen. I’ll do my best not to be horribly scandalised too. You know Ash and me are pretty vanilla.”
“Nothing wrong with that. At least it means you don’t fall off cliffs.”
She squeezed his hand tighter, which hurt, but he said nothing.
“It’s perfectly possible to fall off a cliff even after the most missionary vanilla sex you can comprehend. I once came like a steam train, got out of bed, somehow got tangled up in my fishnets, tripped, and nearly impaled myself on a high heel. Has it stopped me fucking in stilettos and fishnets? Like hell, because Ash would never forgive me. Same reason I don’t blame and swear off using the crimpers, or the tongs, or the hair straighteners when I burn my fingertips.”
“I know, Ginny. It’s just hard to shut out the noise that says otherwise.”
“I got that. On the other hand, you’ve found someone who loves you for being you. Not only do you deserve that, but you need to bloody cling to that with everything you’ve got.”
“Yeah,” he agreed. “I’m gonna.”
“Good.” She patted his hand. Then, an enormous yawn ate up half her face. “God, I’m wiped.”
“What happened to Ash?” he asked. “I know he headed back to help Luthor, but he could have made that trip several times over by now.”
She smiled at him, but he couldn’t find the muscles for a return attempt.
“Ah! I’ve got a story for you.” The sound rumbled around the back of her throat. “He got pulled over for speeding, stupid bugger. It’s been a bit of a wild night, actually. You know Xane’s still missing, too?”
“Still!” Additional dread embedded itself in his chest. He’d known his band mate had done a vanishing act, it just hadn’t sunk in earlier that his best friend wasn’t just home hiding under the bedcovers, nursing a bottle of vodka. “He freaked over going into the ravine. I figured he’d just headed back to his and Luthor’s place.”
“Do you not remember this conversation from when we were in the car? He’s left the island. Left Luthor stranded. Hell, I didn’t even know Xane could drive.”
“He can drive.”
“Ash was supposed to be helping Luthor track him down, except thanks to him being pulled over and given a bunch of stars, the tide came in before he reached the causeway.”
The universe didn’t hate him. It just did shit at random, which sometimes meant it heaped a load of it on you all at once.
“Xane will have gone to one of his bolt holes.”
“Do you know where they are? It might help if I passed that information on.”
“Some of them.” They tended not to be the sort of places you could just rattle off an address to.
“So yeah, it’s been a proper balls-up of a night. Luthor and Ash are waiting on the tide, we’re sitting in a bush, and hell only knows where Rock Giant and Ronnie are, or what they’re doing, or if they even know about any of this shit. Personally, I hope whatever it is they’re doing, it’s fun. Someone in Black Halo needs to be overburdened with fun, right?”
He nodded his agreement. Although, what did overburdened with fun even look like? And surely if you were overburdened by it, it’d stopped being fun.
“Shall we walk?” She started to rise.
“No point. We’re not going to find anywhere open.”
