When Gracie Met The Grump

His laugh healed something in me that I didn’t know I was missing, I guess, and he was still laughing as he said, “Best friends don’t break their best friend’s hearts.”

“It isn’t, but I know you. And you’re not supposed to be anyone else’s Gracie, you’re my friend. My Gracie. I’m too heavy to be a good swimmer, but I’ll never let you drown. I’ll never leave you. I’ll never keep secrets from you again.”

“It hurts my feelings that I’m right here, that you’re right there, and you still think that you’re ever going to be alone again.”

“Do you really think there’s a future for me without you in it?” he asked that time, enunciating every word, his gaze blazing into mine.

And I wanted… I wanted fucking everything. I wanted to live my life, I wanted sex, but I wanted love more. It was why I’d waited. Why I hadn’t settled for just anyone.

“Get real. I’m not risking getting this coat dirty; I read the label. And maybe there’s a sugar daddy or two that might be interested in an all-right-looking, almost thirty-year-old virgin. Do you have a lonely, rich cousin?”

“But I’ve been training my nose to ignore most scents my entire life, so it isn’t overwhelming.” I turned to him. Maybe a normal person would have asked what kind of training he’d endured, but that wasn’t what pressed down on my nosy soul. “Who has the worst farts you’ve ever smelled?”

It was the woman who said, one eye on her phone, “We’re all lawyers here.” I tried to do the math on how much law school for three people was and almost gagged.

“I’m tired of helping people who don’t deserve it, and I know it isn’t up to me to decide who that is. One life is just as important as another. Everyone is someone’s son or daughter.” He shook his head. “For every thousand people we save, we’re blamed for the deaths of another ten thousand.” Those purple eyes flicked toward me. “Nothing I do will