She had stopped, and he stopped with her, still unable to look at her face. Peter winced, wishing he’d left it at least until they’d gotten to the safety of the complex. He couldn’t just not answer, now. Ginger wasn’t going to let him walk away from this. What’s more, she deserved a proper explanation.
He stepped in front of her, still holding her hand like a lifeline, and looked her in the eye once more, trying to steel himself up to telling her. She looked agitated and a little nervous and so, so lost. His jacket was far too big on her and made her look fragile, waif-like, and the entire image she presented tore at his conscience. For a few moments, he couldn’t do more than just look at her mournfully, guiltily. How the fuck could he even start to tell her?
Then he thought of Andrew, waiting back at the complex. The look on his face when Peter had kissed him for the first time. The way he’d smiled on their first date. How Andrew felt pressed up against him on the couch when they snuggled in to watch terrible movies together. The stupid warm feeling he got whenever he and Andrew started bantering back and forth about random stuff. What Rose had said, just the evening before, about how obvious it was how crazy about each other they were. The sound of Andrew’s laugh, and the feel of hearing his own name from Andrew’s lips.
This hurt, to see her again and know that she could no longer be his. To know that their lives together were still over, even with Ginger back from the dead, safe and whole once more, just as she had been when he’d last seen her. It hurt.
Then he thought of Andrew, of this slow realization that had been tickling at the back of his head for the past few days. He could not, would not, did not want to let Andrew go. Not now, not when he was starting to think he might actually be falling.
Not even for Ginger.
And Peter finally found his own voice. “Ginger, I’m seeing someone.” He blinked. It was still unfamiliar, being able to say the words. He and Andrew still hadn’t told more than a few people. And Ginger was possibly the single most important person he would have to tell. Stomach sick with nerves and trying not to panic, Peter waited for her response.