“So?”
“So why do you act like accepting anything from me will kill you?”
“Because it’s your money.”
“And?”
“And if you buy my laptop, then you’ll buy my car.”
She pointed toward the apartment.
“Then my rent.”
“So?”
“And eventually I stop being your girlfriend and become another expense.”
Archie laughed bitterly.
“That’s dramatic.”
“It’s true.”
“No.”
His father’s voice seemed to rise through him.
“Maybe you just like playing the morally superior poor girl.”
Skyla went very still.
Archie kept going.
“Maybe being broke makes you feel better than everyone else.”
Her face drained.
“You sleep here three nights a week.”
He gestured around the penthouse.
“You eat here. Use everything here.”
His voice sharpened.
“But then you perform this little independence routine whenever I offer money.”
The second the words left his mouth, he wanted them back.
Skyla said nothing.
She picked up her broken laptop.
