Page 203 of Broken Brothers

“Yeah, but—”

“No buts, Morgan, you should do it,” he said. “Otherwise, I’m not sure what you’ll be thinking.”

I’m not sure what to think about a lot of things anymore, I thought, though I masked it with a smile.

As predicted, Morgan ended up getting pretty drunk at the dinner. He never got embarrassingly drunk, but I made sure to cut him off after his third double gin and tonic. When we finished, I paid for the meal, called an Uber for Morgan, and put him in the car.

“Let’s reconvene soon,” I said.

“Yeah, yeah,” he said with a smirk. “Whatcha, whatcha gonna do with those girls then? Threesome?”

I laughed.

“I think that would be the worst move right now,” I said. “I see Layla on Thursday and Sarah on Saturday. I’ll figure out the rest after.”

“Ohhh, got it!” Morgan said, pointing at me.

“But hey, Morgan,” I said before closing the door. “You come to me anytime you wanna talk, OK?”

Morgan went silent, bowed his head, and nodded.

“Sleep well and drink some water before you pass out. You’re gonna feel like shit in the morning.”

With that, I closed the car door, tapped the side of it twice, and watched as Morgan drove off into the New York City night, heading to his apartment.

Depending on how the next week or so went, he wasn’t going to be the only one waking up feeling like shit.

82

Thursday night came without any other news from Morgan, which told me that Edwin had either gotten better or there was just no news to speak of.

I didn’t really spend much time thinking about Edwin, anyways. Removed from the presence of Morgan and the impact everything had on him, I just saw Edwin as a man who had led a life of greed, underhanded behavior, and poor decisions, and that was coming back to bite him. Hopefully, in the last few months or years of his life, he could make amends for what he did.

But until he chose to sincerely and really apologize to me, I wasn’t going to waste my time thinking about Edwin Hunt in any fashion. Instead, I texted Layla over the ensuing couple of days, building up to our date on Thursday.

I was determined this time to act a little bit more boldly and a little bit more aggressively. I was still going to try to abide by my “no alcohol, no sex” rule, almost because I knew skirting those rules would make things more erotic—there was something fun about pushing up on boundaries, shoving against them, but not actually doing anything about then. But I alsoreadily acknowledged that there was a very good chance that I was not going to be able to follow my own rules.

So it was that I stood outside the front door of her apartment, wearing a suit with a button down shirt. I had thrown on some nice cologne and a good watch as well; I wanted to woo her as if I were a supermodel coming to take her out for the night.

“Damn, Chance,” she said when she exited. She had on much more lipstick and makeup than before, and she looked hella sexy. I got hard on the spot, thought about just driving into her on the steps, and having some of the most intense, kinkiest public sex a couple had ever had.

Fortunately, I had just enough self-control to make sure I didn’t do something that crazy. Though I certainly gave it more thought than normal.

“What’s up, beautiful,” I said as I moved in to her.

When she came up to me and wrapped my arms around me, I think she might have been expecting just a hug, similar to how we had started our Monday morning date. It made kissing her and sweeping her off her feet just that much more fun; that she wasn’t expecting it caused her to yip out and moan in surprise when I literally lifted her off the ground to kiss her.

“Now this is more like it!” Layla said. “This was the Chance I’ve been wanting to see.”

“Yeah, well, there’s more where that come from you haven’t seen yet,” I said, smirking as I called our Uber.

“And will I get to see more of it later tonight?”

I just batted my eyes and shrugged with my right shoulder.

“Wouldn’t you like to know?”

I could see Layla narrowing her eyes, which was a great sign. If she’d taken such a statement as me keeping her away more, it would have been the worst kind of reaction possible. But if she was taking it playfully and cheerfully, then there may have yet been hope for the two of us.