“I wish I’d gotten it on camera...”

Then it was as if he realized what sort of mood she was in.

“Mia, are you upset? This is no time to be upset—it’s almost Christmas, and if you’re really good, really happy, Santa will bring you presents. What do you want for Christmas, by the way?”

She lifted her head from his chest and looked at him to see if he was serious or not. “Nothing,” she said.

“Nothing?”

“Nothing!”

She laid her head back down, looking at his unusually large nipples and the hair growing around them. Glancing around the room, she looked at the nearly empty bookshelf, the dust in straight lines where the CD cases had stood. Now they were spread across the floor after having been played multiple times during the night and into the morning on an old stereo with two enormous speakers that looked like black towers in the corner of the bedroom. She never thought she would survive a night of Ace of Base, but on the other hand, she also never thought that she would date a man who liked sucking on toes, either.

She definitely needed to break up with him.

“A sweater, maybe?” he said. “Or earrings?”

“I don’t like earrings,” she said, sitting up.

“Tell me what you do like, then.”

“Not earrings.”

“No?”

“No.”

“But you have to want something.”

“No.”

She looked at him and felt the irritation growing. What they had between them wasn’t real. And now she regretted that she had come to this jabbering idiot in the first place, wished that she’d had enough sense to let it go. She didn’t feel comfortable with him. He wasn’t the right one at all, actually—not for her, not now, not at any time in the life she wished for.

He had done that moaning thing again, loudly, and despite that she had yawned during the act, he hadn’t let that stop him—he’d just continued on top of her, inside her, and she had had the urge to stick her fingers in her ears so she didn’t have to hear him anymore. That fucking irritating sound. She had wanted to scream at him to stop for Christ’s sake, that it would be better to sleep than to waste time on what they thought they had in common—which was nothing.

“I’ve already bought something for you,” he said.

“What did you say?”

“I’ve already bought something for you, I said.”

“What is it?”

“You’ll have to wait and see.”

“Tell me what you bought,” she said.

“Something nice.”

“Like?”

“I can’t tell you or it won’t be a surprise.”

“I don’t like surprises.”

“But I do.”

“You can give me a hint, then.”

“Nope,” he said, getting out of bed.

He went into the bathroom and locked the door.