Best Friend's Ex Box Set

"Adam Wallace, turbine salesman and Chicago resident," he said holding my gaze.

"I know that. I mean, who are you? Where do you come from? Who are your parents?" I peppered him with the questions that had been ping ponging around my brain since I'd discovered him on the living room couch. "You don't talk about anything connected to your life, and I'm curious about who you are and where you come from."

"Eh, not much to tell," he shrugged as he looked away. "I'm an only child. Went to boarding schools most of my life and got a degree in engineering from MIT. My best friend, Bugsy, is in charge of the turbine operation in Chicago, and I'm the one charged with the task of selling the technology we developed. Well, we adapted it, really, we didn't invent it."

"Where are your parents?" I asked.

"Chicago."

"What do they do?"

"My father owns an energy company that does a lot of business overseas and my mother is...well, she's a housewife, I guess," he said.

"You don't seem very effusive about them," I observed. It wasn't that he wasn't effusive; it was that he obviously didn't want to even talk about them. "Are you close to them?"

"Look, why are you giving me the third-degree about my parents?" he said sounding irritated. "We're not as close as you and your family. Is that what you want to hear?"

"I don't want to hear anything," I said, shifting my position so that I could wrap my arms around my knees as I watched Adam's face. He looked like he wanted to say something, but then he shook his head and mumbled something I couldn't understand. "What is it, Adam?"

"Nothing, it's nothing," he said picking at an invisible thread in the quilt. "It's just..."

"Just what?"

"My family isn't like yours, Grace," he said without looking up. "We're just...different."

"You mean your family isn't Amish?" I laughed.

"No, not like that. I mean, we're not Amish," he said as he looked up at me and smiled halfheartedly. "We're just really different from your family, that's all."

"Are you—" I began, but was interrupted by a loud pounding on the front door. "What in the world?"

"GRACE! GRACE! OPEN UP!" a voice shouted as the pounding intensified.

"I'll take care of this," Adam said as he pulled on a t-shirt.

"No, you won't," I shot back. "It's my house and whoever it is looking for me."

"Grace, you're not dressed," he said calmly. "I've got it."

I quickly pulled the quilt off the bed and wrapped it around me so that my nightgown was hidden and followed Adam to the front door.

"What in the hell are you doing?" Adam shouted as he yanked the door open and revealed Gabe standing on the front porch holding a bouquet of flowers in one hand and an envelope in the other.

"Get out of the way, English!" Gabe growled as he looked at me and held out the flowers and the envelope. "Grace, please. Take this, it's all the money I made from last year's crops and it's enough to help keep the farm going for another year while the store..."

"While the store what?" I asked wondering what was going on. "While the store what?"

"I...I...I don't know," Gabe stammered as he shook the flowers sending a shower of petals into the night air.

"No, I know you're hiding something and I want to know what you know," I said sternly. There was something wrong about all of this.

"Speak up, Amish," Adam ordered.

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"You. Zip it," I said turning and giving Adam an icy stare that told him I didn't need his help.

"Just trying to help," he muttered.