Duke, Actually

by Jenny Holiday

It wasn’t until they got a little older that Father started taking an interest. And by “taking an interest,” Max meant destroying toys of Seb’s he deemed too feminine. Or seizing an apple strudel Seb had helped the cook make and hurling it against the wall in the dining room.

Honestly, she’d thought the whole point of Tinder was that it was easy. Apparently if you had standards, it wasn’t any easier than the real world.

As cool as Max was turning out to be, it was a little awkward that he was a literal aristocrat and she was having trouble making rent. Well, awkward on her end, anyway. He never seemed to notice, much less mind, the vast economic gulf between them.

she’d learned he was, for lack of a better phrase, an ethical man-whore. He liked sex, and he apparently had a lot of it, but he tried to make sure that everyone had a good time and understood his “rules of engagement.” She wanted to be like that.

“Whoever came up with the notion that one should feel guilty about things that bring one pleasure should be shot.”

I feel like I’m always navigating these two worlds but always falling short in each of them. But at home, with my family, it’s not a thing. I’m just who I am.”

While I understand the power of addiction and would extend the benefit of the doubt to anyone else in its grip, I can’t . . . let go of some of the things he’s done. The damage has been too great. I can’t fix him, and I don’t want to try.”

It struck her as funny that Max knew the real reason she was hesitating on the online-dating front—fear of getting her heart broken again—and Leo, her supposed best friend, did not.

you seem to be willing to go to great lengths to ensure the happiness of the people you love. Why aren’t you willing to do that for yourself?”

“We’ve learned that love is more important than duty, you numbskull.”

when she burst out the other end, there he was. Max. She had no idea how everything was going to play out. Where they were going to live, if they were even going to live together, what she was going to do about work. But none of it mattered when he stopped walking about twenty feet from her and made a “come here” gesture with his fingers. He moved his hands around so that he was ready to catch her Dirty Dancing style.

“We’re going to look like fools.” “That’s true,” he said cheerfully. Oh how she loved him. Her funny, kind, beautiful Max. “Well, all right, then,” she said, and she took off running.

“You know I can’t just move to Eldovia. I’m not doing a Meghan Markle. I can’t move somewhere ninety percent of the populace is white.” “I know,” he said. “I get it.” And she thought he actually did.