Page 12 of By Rude Strength

“What happened?” Cass asked as he joined him, his expression concerned. “You said he dumped you?”

“Yeah, after almost two years.” LA nodded. “Which, for me, is a pretty long time. He gave me a bunch of crap over missing a lunch date with his parents today when he knew I had a meeting with my boss about my job. He always does this shit.”

“What stuff?”

“Makes plans on dates when he knows I already have something else to do.” LA snorted sourly. “I know he does it because he’s insecure and wants me to make a big deal about choosing him over whatever the other thing is, but this is fucking ridiculous even for him.”

“This is something he’s done before?” Cass seemed alarmed.

“Yeah. Like when I want to go have some drinks with my friends, he magically has new movie tickets or he’s ordered takeout for us. Or when I had a funeral director conference, he booked us a hotel at the beach so I had to cancel it. Crap like that.”

“So, this is… common behavior.”

“I know he’s not perfect. Far from it. He has his issues, but so do I.” LA looked down at his glass. “I worked all the time. And I mean,all the time. Pull a ten hour shift, have to be on call that night, and right back at it the next day. It was hard to see each other but he was always understanding.”

“Manipulating you into doing what he wants at the cost of your own desires doesn’t sound veryunderstandingto me.”

“It’s not your job to understand, right? It’s just your fucking job to help me. I need to get him back.” LA downed the rest of his drink.

“Let’s take some deep breaths,” Cass suggested, “and really think about what you’re asking me to do.”

“Get my boyfriend back?”

“Yes, that.” Cass frowned. “Do you really feel like Gavin was meeting your needs?”

“Excuse me?”

“What do you love about Gavin?”

LA scoffed. “I love him. It doesn’t matter.”

“Oh, but I think it does.” Cass held out his paws and he was now holding a notepad and a pink fuzzy pen. “We are going to make a nice little list of everything you love about Gavin.”

“Holy fuck, this is dumb.”

“We are also going to write down everything that you do not love about Gavin!” Cass grinned, looking very pleased with himself. “Thinking thatcontrol issuesanddomineering of personal timeare gonna go over here in thedo not loveside.”

“Hey! Stop that! Quit writing!” LA tried to snatch the pen away.

Cass leapt to his feet, his wings flapping as he scrambled out of LA’s reach.

LA growled as he gave chase and limped after Cass. “Hey! Come here!”

“Manipulative!” Cass kept running, leading LA in circles. “Mmm, sounds kinda selfish too.”

“I swear to fuck, come on!” LA managed to catch the end of Cass’s tail and he pulled as hard as he could, grunting sharply from the fiery reminder in his back that he didn’t have the physical ability he once did.

“What’s wrong?” Cass frowned, skidding to a stop. “Are you in pain?”

“Yes! And you’re about to be if you don’t stop!” LA tried to grab the notepad, but Cass was so tall that it was effortless for him to lift it out of reach. “Come on!”

“Why not just give me some positive things, hmm? Tell me some things you love about Gavin! Is he nice to animals? Is he a good cuddler?” Cass sighed. “Work with me here!”

The pain in LA’s back forced him to retreat, and he growled in frustration as he trudged to the couch. He flopped down and stretched out his legs, trying to get the sting to ease off. “This is so, so stupid.”

“Why?”

“Because I love him, I want him back, and that’s the end of it, okay?” LA’s head was not nearly fuzzy enough for this, and he refilled his glass with straight rum.