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“I think we need to talk,” I say as he puts the car in park. “About everything that happened this weekend.”

“Not today, Katrina,” he insists. “I’m tired and still have to drive back to Charleston. I have a shift tomorrow morning.”

“If you would have stuck to the plan, like you always do, you wouldn’t have had to drive me back here.”

“You’re the one who’s always telling me I should be more considerate and try to keep the romance alive.” He raises his tone ever so slightly. “The first time I do it and I get my head bitten off. Not only that, but you humiliated me in front of your parents and then were short with my colleagues all night last night.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, I can only give my opinion on the state of the country’s healthcare system so many times before I die of boredom or piss off the wrong person,” I shoot back. “You didn’t need to make Bryce and Carter the target of your bad attitude with my parents.”

“What is your deal with them? Why do you always feel the need to jump to their defense?”

“Why do you need to put them down?” I challenge back. “They weren’t there to defend themselves and, even worse, they’re clients of Thomas’s. You shouldn’t speak badly about them. I don’t understand why you seem to hate them so much.”

“They’re the epitome of lazy, Katrina,” he replies. “All they care about is swimming and getting medals. They could never hold down a career, even if they wanted to.”

My eyebrows shoot up. “That’s a bold thing to say about two men you haven’t spoken to since college.”

“I spoke to Bryce on Friday,” he replies easily.

“You showed off to Bryce,” I correct just as swiftly. “You did nothing but brag and degrade. Do you really think I told you to leave because I was worried about traffic? You were embarrassing me, Will.”

Will scoffs. “I wasn’t embarrassing you. If anything, Clark should be the one who’s embarrassed.”

“I don’t think he has anything to be embarrassed about. He and Carter are doing what makes them happy. If more people could do that, maybe the world would be a happier place.”

“You sound like a child.” The way he says it is so patronizing, so diminishing of my contribution to the conversation. It infuriates me that he still thinks it’s okay to talk to me like that. “Happiness comes from being productive and doing something worthwhile.”

I want to scream at him, question why he seems to think what Bryce and Carter are doing isn’t worthwhile. Dreams look different to everyone; happiness and success are different to everyone. Just because Will dedicated his life to a job that will get him prestige and money, which are his only priorities, doesn’t mean everyone has to. In fact, a lot of his colleagues would argue they do the job to help people, but not Will.

“How long are you planning on sitting in here? I want to get back on the road.”

There’s no question about it. I’m being dismissed. Rolling my eyes, I grab the bag at my feet and wrench open the door. I don’t say goodbye, don’t tell him I love him—it’d be a lie anyway—I just slam the door shut behind me, knowing it would piss him off.

“Katrina!” I’ve barely turned toward my rental when his voice filters out the open window. With a deep, calming breath, I turn back to face him. “The only issue I ever had with Abrams was the fact he should have been more cautious with information he didn’t want made public.”

Ican’tgetWill’scomment out of my head.

I’ve known him long enough to know when something he says is supposed to be insulting. I’d been on the receiving end of those comments more than once, and this was one of them.

“The only issue I ever had with Abrams was the fact he should have been more cautious with information he didn’t want made public.”

That could mean a hundred different things, and very few of them would be painting Carter in a bad light. Drugs, cheating, lying—none of these seem plausible to me. Carter’s a good person, Bryce is a good person, so are Mia and Josie. None of them would condone that kind of behavior. Plus, something like that would only stroke Will’s self-righteous ego, and he’d brag about it.

It has to be something else.

Whatever happened, Will doesn’t seem to regret his part in it, even if he’s not ready to brag about it. Which tells me it’s something he knows I wouldn’t agree with. Something that could be a deal-breaker.

I reach for my laptop, logging on, and starting a new search. I start simple, typing: Carter Abrams. A bunch of results for an older businessman pop up. I narrow the search by tacking “swimmer” onto the end of his name. In seconds, I’m flooded with information.

The pictures showcased with the results mostly show him in a cap and goggles, so I only hesitate on them for a second. I wouldn’t mind going down a rabbit hole of Carter pictures, but it has to wait. Right now, I need answers, and those answers can’t be found looking at his stupid, perfect face.

I scroll away from the pictures.

The recent articles are about his accomplishments in the lead up to Trials this summer, and followed by highlights from World Championships, and then the previous Olympics. It wasn’t until the fourth page of results that a headline caught my eye:

Nashville University Freshman Carter Abrams Comes out as Bisexual.

I’m clicking into the article before I can even register how much this feels like an invasion of privacy. It’s not something we’ve ever talked about and it’s not something he needs to announce to me. I’ve always been a firm believer that no one owes anyone an explanation surrounding sexuality. We’re all free to love who we love and be who we want to be.