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“Oh,” Elizabeth began. “She wanted to sleep with you.”

“I got that impression, yes.” Palmer then looked back, wanting to see Elizabeth’s reaction.

Elizabeth’s expression was unreadable mostly, but her cheeks were flushed. Palmer had no way of knowing if it was because of the topic of conversation or the cold outside.

“You didn’t want to?”

“No,” Palmer replied. “I mean, I thought about it. After Anna and I broke up over the phone, I thought about going out and just having rebound sex, but… I don’t know. That’s never really been my style. It didn’t feel right.”

“Anna and you were together for a while, right?” Elizabeth slid down into her own sleeping bag.

They both stared at the ceiling of the tent then.

“About nine months before she opened things up.”

“Opened things up?”

“She wanted to see other people. Anna is a lot younger than me. She’s twenty-three.”

“That’s how old Victoria is.”

“Well, I’m twenty-nine. It’s only six years, but we started dating when she was just out of school. We’re just in two different places in our lives.”

“Do you love her?” Elizabeth asked.

“Idid,” Palmer replied. “I don’t think I’m in love with her anymore, though, no. It hurt me when she said she loved me but thought we should date other people. To me, that’s not love. I don’t judge other people for wanting what they want, but I want one person; a commitment. If she didn’t want that with me, then it wasn’t meant to be. It took me a while to sort through the pain of her with someone else. Then, I just kind of went through the motions.”

“How does that work?” Elizabeth asked.

“How doeswhatwork?”

“If she’s with other people.”

“Are you asking if we talked about it?”

“I suppose… Do you know who, how many, or anything like that? I don’t know how it works with open relationships.”

“Never been in one yourself?” Palmer turned her head to see that Elizabeth was watching her.

“No,” Elizabeth replied.

“Makes sense. I don’t know many guys that would have the balls to be with a Princess and then ask her if they could see other people,” Palmer said.

Elizabeth looked toward the ceiling again.

“I’m sorry. I seem to keep saying the wrong things to you when it comes to this topic,” Palmer added.

Elizabeth turned her head back and said, “No, it’s not that.” She closed her eyes for a moment before opening them again. “Yes, dating is hard when you’re in my family.” She inhaled deeply. “So, you and Anna?”

“I didn’t know who she was with or what they did. Based on the conversation we had when we broke up, though, it sounds like she didn’t go crazy. She slept with someone recently, and I ended it.”

“Wereyouwith anyone else? I mean, if she could be, you could be, too, right?”

“I could have, but no,” she answered honestly.

“And you two still…”

Palmer smirked at her and said, “Yeah, we did. Well, in the beginning, we did. But as it kept dragging on and on, we basically stopped. We were pretty much just friends in the end who kissed occasionally.”