by Aliana James
“Man, how are you?” He was enveloped by a huge bear hug. Tom was a massive guy well over six and a half feet tall and wide with muscles. His wife, Jane, was half his size, and he gasped as he saw her make her way out of the car.
“I’m good, man. Is she…? Are you guys…?” He gestured to Jane’s belly.
Tom laughed. “Yup, she’s due in December.”
He hugged Jane and returned her smile. “Oh, that’s awesome. Congrats!”
“How are you, Travis? Gosh, we miss you. We haven’t seen Peter since his accident,” she said.
“Yeah, I stopped by a couple times but he wasn’t home.” Tom gestured down the block. “Are you stopping by his place?”
“Yeah, I had some paperwork I needed to drop off. He’s doing okay.”
“You guys aren’t back together.” It was a statement, not a question.
He watched Jane and Tom look at each other, some kind of silent communication that only couples who knew each other for a long time could do.
“No, we’re not. In fact, I got married.”
Jane’s relief was noticeable. “That’s great news. Congratulations.”
A car honked behind them and caused all three of them to jump.
“Oh, crap, we have to go. I’m blocking that guy’s driveway. Good to see you man!” Tom waved and Jane squeezed his arm as she waddled back to the car. He waved and walked around the corner.
He hurried down the block and came to a stop as a car pulled into Peter’s driveway. A man climbed out of the car. Even from where he stood, he could see he was attractive. The man wore a form-fitting sweater, and his dark, wavy hair hung over his face while his jeans sat low and snug.
So this was why Peter wanted him to leave.
Peter obviously wasn’t going to Tom and Jane’s; they couldn’t be in two places at once. Curiosity got the best of him so he crept down the block. Mr. Robbin, Peter’s next-door neighbor, was hard of hearing and had a bad back. He had on many occasions helped the man with his garbage cans or shoveled snow so he was familiar with his side of the driveway and knew he could take a shortcut through his yard and have the perfect view of Peter’s kitchen.
He glanced around and ran up Mr. Robbin’s driveway, around the pails and through the hedges that divided the two properties. The sun chose that moment to pop out of the clouds and his eyes fought to adjust. He moved to his left and Peter’s kitchen window came into view. It wasn’t long before the two of them entered the kitchen.
Peter’s back was to him but he could see the other man’s torso. The cold ground seeped through his dress shoes. No way could he stand here for long. A couple minutes was all he needed. The next second, the man picked Peter up and bracketed him against the wall. Peter’s legs, both of them, wrapped around his waist. Hands and arms moved up and down and he watched as someone snaked their hand in between the bodies.
There was no way someone with Peter’s injuries was capable of doing that. He moved out from behind the hedge and walked around to the front of Peter’s house. All the weekends he juggled Raven, Peter, and his parents. The hours he spent cleaning his house, buying things for him. He’d even left work to come check on him. Peter didn’t need his help.
All this time, Alec had tried to tell him something wasn’t right, and he dismissed him. They’d argued. And for what?
Stupid him, he thought Peter was a friend. He stalked up the steps to the front porch and banged on the door. Minutes later, he banged on it again. The door flung open, and the man stood there staring at him.
“You’re not the Chinese food delivery guy.”
“Nope.” Travis pushed the door open and weaved around him.
“Hey, you can’t just come in here!”
“Lucas, who is it?”
He wound his way to the kitchen to find Peter sitting on top of the island, naked from the waist down.
“Shit, Travis.” Peter scrambled off the island and grabbed the small kitchen towel to place in front of him. “What are you doing here?”
“Huh. Nothing I haven’t seen before. How much longer were you going to take advantage of me, Peter?”
“What—no! It wasn’t like that!”
“Bullshit. Do you know how many times I’ve been over here since your accident? How many times you begged me to come over to help you shave, get fucking dressed, clean the house?” He picked up a prescription bottle on the counter, the dosage not even a quarter of what had been prescribed since his accident.
The doorbell rang. That was probably the Chinese food. Peter grabbed his pants off the floor, haphazardly pulling one leg on and then the other. He placed the bottle on the counter and then picked it up again. The prescribing doctor: Dr. Lucas Smith.
“Are you fucking your doctor?” he asked and turned to Peter. “Do you even have nerve damage in your hands?”
“Travis.” Peter clasped his hands together, and he stared at them. Both of them were intertwined, something Peter told him last weekend he couldn’t do.
“Listen, I don’t know who you are, but to barge in here like this and start yelling…” Lucas put the bag of food down and put his arm around Peter. “Are you okay, sweetheart?”
What an absolute fool he had been! Shit, if you asked him earlier today who would have disappointed him, he would have never said Peter.
Peter nodded and burrowed into Lucas’ side. A move he had done to Travis several times in the last six months. He needed to get out of here before he did something really bad.
“He led me to believe he was incapable of doing the simplest things, to shave, to do laundry, to grocery shop. Hell, even to shower and get dressed at one point.” He turned to face Peter. “I’ve been coming over here, sacrificing sleep and my sanity out of concern for you.”
“He told me he hired someone to help. Thank you for helping him. I’ll show you out,” Lucas stated as he tucked Peter behind him.
“Are you fucking kidding me? Hired me? Hired me!” He slammed his hand on the counter. Peter slunk into the doorway. “Do you know who I am? I’m his ex-boyfriend. We’re friends, or so he told me. I am not hired help, sweetheart. Peter didn’t pay me a dime. Not that I would ever take a damn thing from him. He’s a liar, a manipulator, and a selfish asshole. You can have him.”
He locked eyes with Peter, their faces inches from each other. Lucas stepped between and pushed him away from Peter. “God, I am so happy I didn’t stay with you, really dodged a bullet. I would have missed out on marrying Alec. Well, my friend, don’t bother ever calling me. We. Are. Done.”
Chapter Nineteen
Travis
Frustrated with himself, sad and pissed off, Travis exited the subway and jogged up the stairs to the street. He wasn’t the crying type, but the tears were threatening to make an appearance. The scene of Peter half-naked in the kitchen played on a loop like a bad horror movie.
His head, heavy and painful, throbbed and made it hard to focus. He needed a shower, maybe some time under the jets, and two painkillers to make this manageable. The awning of his building came into view and Travis stopped. He waved at the doorman and strode to the elevator.
A tear broke free and ran down his cheek. That fucking bastard. Peter had set him up. How long would Peter have kept up the charade? Made him believe he was incapable of completing simple tasks? He’d continued to convince him his injuries were not healing, too severe for him to function for himself.
The elevator stopped and the act of moving made him grimace. The last time his body ached like this was when he had the flu last year. The blare of the TV greeted him as he entered the apartment, sounds of a basketball game at full volume, the squeak of the ball bouncing in sync with the pain in his head.
Alec’s size thirteen shoes sat in the entryway, next to a chair that held Alec’s jacket. The closet a mere three feet away clearly was too much work for Alec to reach in his haste to get to the TV. He threw his keys on the entryway table, kicked off his shoes next to Alec’s because why the fuck not, and thr
ew his jacket on top of his.
A wave of dizziness caused him to grab the chair to steady himself. Food. When had he eaten last? A whistle blew on the TV, and he cringed and squeezed his eyes shut. More tears fell.
“What’s the matter?”
Alec walked up to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. He couldn’t figure out where to start even if he wanted to tell him. It was a bad idea. Alec had told him several times that Peter took advantage of him, of their friendship. Every single time, Travis defended him and chalked it up to Alec feeling jealous.
This time? To tell Alec, hey, you were right about Peter being an asshole? And have everything thrown back into his face in the process? Nope, not going there.
“I have a bad headache.” He left Alec in the hallway and shuffled into the kitchen for the bottle of pain medicine. Tears still escaped even though he swiped at his eyes. He wet a paper towel, pressed it to his face, and suppressed the urge to scream.
The television volume decreased to the point where he didn’t feel like someone had bounced a ball on his head. Alec entered the kitchen and stood on the other side of the island, a look of concern on his face. He downed three painkillers with a bottle of water and stared at the floor.
“I called your office to invite you to lunch.” Alec’s voice, quiet and soft, held a hint of something he couldn’t identify. They were both busy and sometimes schedules didn’t match up to meet for lunch. It wasn’t a big deal.
Food before a shower or a shower before food? There was something he had to do today—tonight. He needed to check his phone. He hadn’t charged it this morning, and it died after he left work. As he grabbed it to plug it in, a sharp pain poked him behind his right eye and caused him to close his eyes. He needed a moment, some quiet to let the painkillers kick in and then he’d eat.
“Cynthia told me you left early.” Alec leaned against the counter and folded his arms. “Doctor’s appointment?”
Shit.
“It wasn’t on your calendar and Cynthia usually records those so I said to myself where could Travis be? His parents are out of town. So where would Travis go on a random weekday afternoon? Somewhere his assistant who knows everything didn’t know?”
His phone chose now to power on and messages lit up. A calendar alert was on the top of the screen reminding him he needed to cover for Jonas tonight at Raven.
“Alec…”
“Let me guess. You were at Peter’s?” Alec asked.
“Yes, but—”
“Do you know why I called to invite you to lunch? Because my whole family was in town today. All of us together. You know how rare that is—my brothers, Jacqui, Thalia, Julian and even Antonio with my grandfather.”
The pain behind his right eye spread to his left. Nausea bubbled up in his stomach and bile secreted in his mouth. He grabbed a piece of bread and took a bite to keep the nausea at bay. Caffeine. A cup of coffee helped him when he had a headache. He turned and dropped a pod into the machine.
“Do you know why everyone was here? Because we had a vote today, and we were celebrating my new position as CEO of the company.”
He turned with his eyebrows raised at Alec. “CEO? Of what?” Alec wasn’t making sense or his brain stopped working.
“CEO of Bennett Industries.” Alec stood directly in front of him, anger rolling off of him in waves, his arms folded so tightly his biceps bulged through his shirt. The machine beeped, and he grabbed the cup of coffee. Alec stared at the cup in his hand. Travis never drank coffee in the evenings.
“Why are you drinking coffee?”
“Headache. I need to stay awake tonight.”
Alec looked at him in confusion.
“I’m covering for Jonas at Raven tonight. I mentioned it yesterday.”
“You know there’s a nasty rainstorm coming in tonight, right?”
“I promised Jonas I would cover for him. Can we talk about this tomorrow? I’m tired.”
“Huh, but you’re not too tired to bartend?” Alec grunted. “Why are you so tired? Did Peter need a sponge bath this afternoon?”
He couldn’t keep up with the abrupt change in conversation.
“What? No.” From the pressure in his head, he wondered if it might explode. “Why? Wait a damn minute.”
“No, I won’t wait. I waited all afternoon to tell you. Wondering I might add where the fuck you were… my mind working overtime as to why you’d be at Peter’s in the middle of the afternoon. What could he possibly need today? And then I thought, why am I surprised? You let everyone take advantage, give everyone your time. Everyone except me.”
“What are you talking about? I give you time—”
“No, Travis, you don’t. I get whatever is left. Do you have any idea how embarrassed I felt when Cynthia told me you left and I had no idea where? We’re married for God’s sake.”
“Okay, okay.” He needed a minute for his brain to compute everything Alec threw at him.
“It’s not okay. You give everyone else time but me. It’s not okay you spend so much time with your ex-boyfriend. It’s not okay when you let him, Tyler, your parents, and whoever goddamn else interrupt what little time we do get together. That’s not okay either.”
Alec pushed off the counter, stalked in front of him and poked him in the chest. “I thought I could be the stronger one, be okay with watching you give to everyone. It’s part of his charm I said to myself. But now I know, damn it, I deserve some of your time, your attention. Some of your undivided fucking attention. I give you my attention because I thought that’s what you do when you’re in love with someone, when you want to make a marriage work. Because, shit, stupid me I thought maybe we could make this thing work between us for real.”
Where the hell was all this coming from? His phone chimed on the counter. Alec lunged for it before he reached it.
“See? Yet another one waiting to take advantage.” He glanced at the phone and threw it on the sofa. “You’d better get going. Jonas doesn’t want you to forget the ice machine sticks.”
“Alec, wait a minute.” He nearly tripped over the cat as he followed Alec into the hallway.
“I’m done waiting!” Alec yelled, his hands up in the air.
“Where are you going?”
“Out.” Alec pulled his jacket on and jammed his feet into his shoes. “This should make you happy. You can be with Peter now.”
What the fuck?
“As CEO of Bennett, I no longer have to be married to keep my position. You are free to get a divorce.”
The door slammed behind him.
Alec
He knocked on Kane’s door. He needed to talk to someone or else he would go out of his mind.
Kane pulled open the door, and he looked at him in surprise. “Hey man, what’s… wrong?
He frowned at Kane and pushed his way into his apartment. Kane didn’t look much better. For someone who was meticulous about his appearance as Travis—shoes had to match the outfit, brand names needed to coordinate and one couldn’t leave without being totally together—he looked like shit. His shirt was pulled halfway out of his pants, tie yanked to one side, one pantleg tucked into a sock. Kane’s hair slanted to one side, most likely from his hands running through it.
“Listen, I have to go.” Kane hung up his phone and glanced at Alec.
“What’s going on?”
“I should be asking you that.” He gestured at Kane’s shirt. “Something you need to talk about?”
Kane jammed his hands in his pockets and hung his head.
“No, I can’t talk about him… um, I mean the situation.” Kane looked over at the kitchen. “Why don’t you grab a couple of beers? I need to change.”
Security issues made it difficult for Kane to share any information with him so he shrugged it off. It didn’t matter. He had enough on his mind.
He made his way over to the fridge, grabbed two beers, and walked to the sofa. He placed the beers on the table and rubbed his hands over his eyes. What had he done? Ha
d he just given Travis permission to walk away from their marriage? From him?
His anger and his jealousy had gotten the best of him. But wasn’t he justified? God, he couldn’t remember ever feeling this confused. Why did it feel like he made the worst mistake of his life?
Kane came into the living room, grabbed a beer from the coffee table and sat opposite him.
“You going to clue me in on what’s going on or are we going to sit here all night? And if it’s the second choice, hand me the remote so I can put the game on.”
“That’s just it. I’m still trying to figure out what just happened.”
Kane leaned forward, his elbows on his knees, and gave him his full attention.
“Start at the beginning,” he said quietly.
Alec took a deep breath. His throat, dry and tight, prompted him to open his beer and take a huge drink. Kane, patient as always, waited until he was ready.
“You know I was voted in today.”
“Yeah, I argued with William. I wanted to be in on that meeting but he thought Weston might feel cornered if he saw me.”
“Yeah, I know you two have had words in the past.”
“You couldn’t be in shock from the meeting though,” Kane said.
“No, no. I called Travis’s office to invite him to lunch, he’d left for the afternoon and Cynthia didn’t know where he was.”
Kane took a swig of his beer. “Huh. And he didn’t let you know where he was.”
Alec paused. “Is there a problem with that?”
“Not usually, but since you two got married, you’ve made it a point of knowing exactly where your husband is at all times.”
He put the beer on the table and began to pace. “I was concerned.”
“No, you were jealous.”
“Come on, Kane. I’m not that bad.”
“You aren’t? I can tell you without having to listen to the rest of the play-by-play that this either has to do with Tyler or Peter. So I call bullshit and say that you were totally jealous.”