Page 43 of A Thousand Cuts

“Anything is possible if a motherfucker is determined enough. The level of obsession some people can develop is disturbing. Is your boy okay?”

“He will be.” Fix fisted his hand on the counter. “As soon as I figure out what’s going on.”

“Well, ask him at least which platform he’s on.”

“I told him I wouldn’t look him up. I want to keep my word.”

“And you will,” Morgan said. “Because I just need a platform name andI’lllook him up.”

Fix tilted his head. “You’d do that?”

“My boyfriend’s daddy is my daddy too,” Morgan said with a cheeky smile.

“I’m gonna bake you both into a pie.”

Morgan snorted out a laugh. “I’m just kidding. About the daddy part, not the helping part. If you can get the name of his platform or his performer name I can maybe check out one of his streams and try and see how everything is set up, if the platform is a trustworthy one and how much shit he might be in. I watch A LOT of this, so I can gauge the audience too. The creeps are very easy to spot.”

“Thanks,” Fix said, feeling like a small weight had been removed from his shoulders at having some sort of direction to take this in.

He reached for his phone, opening another text to Liam before hesitating and closing it again.

Morgan smirked. “You’re not gonna ask him, are you?”

Fix smiled, shaking his head as he put the phone down with finality. “I don’t think I am. I made him a promise and I feel like breaking it would ruin the little rapport I’ve managed to build with him.”

Morgan watched him for a moment before smiling gently and hopping off the bar stool.

“You know, Fix,” he said, “I love Ash more than anything, so know I’m saying this in a purely platonic way. You’re one of the best people I know. He’d be a fool to not want you.”

Fix felt himself flush and he looked down, as uncomfortable as he always felt when someone said something nice about him to his face. He just didn’t really know how to handle it.

“Thanks, Morgan. Really.”

“No worries. I’ll go now. He’s been unsupervised for way too long and it’s too quiet.”

“Go stop him before he does something dumb.”

“His entire existence is dumb,” Morgan said with a loving smile he couldn’t hide, saluting him before sauntering off.

Fix went through the motions of finishing lunch, packing it up individually so everyone would have a meal the way theypreferred: sauce and pasta separate for Hart, a mountain of spices for Midas, bow-shaped pasta for Black, veggie sauce and vegan pasta for Wren, and half a bottle of hot sauce for Ash.

He ate his portion and cleaned up after himself before retreating to his room. He tried reading, took a shower, and ironed all of their clothes in a desperate attempt to make the time go faster.

It still felt like he had a thousand hours until bedtime.

Naked on his back under the covers, he had his phone in his hand again, another blank text to Liam open. Mocking him.

He knew he couldn’t reach out, and yet everything inside him screamed at him to do it. Just to see if he was awake. If he felt safe enough to sleep. If he needed anything.

He was tying himself up in knots and hating every moment of it. It wasn’t like him. He usually openly cared about people and went out of his way to make sure they were okay. Liam was the exception in his life in every imaginable way, and Fix was struggling to be okay with it. He just wanted him close.

He stared at the open text and groaned, letting his phone slip out of his hands and thump onto the bed. He was behaving like a teenager with a first crush.

He’d forced himself to close his eyes and was trying to go to sleep when his phone rang. He scrambled for it, digging around in his blankets to find it. He finally got a hold of it and nearly choked on his own tongue when he saw Liam’s name pop up on his screen.

“Hello?” he answered, voice sounding wheezy with panic. “Is everything okay?”

“I saw the most interesting thing on my walk with King,” Liam said.