Page 14 of Heartbreak Honey

Now

SITTING ON A BENCH at Griffith Park, Trevor takes a sip of his Jamba Juice Go Getter green smoothie with one hand while he types out a quick reply to an e-mail from the parent of one of his guitar students on his phone with the other. Stella tugs at the leash looped around his wrist.

“Another minute and we can go, girl.”

She gives him a petulant look but plops her butt back down in the grass.

They’re waiting for Oli, who always manages to be late even when he’s the one who sets the plans. Though to be fair, today Oli wanted to meet downtown for dinner, and Trevor countered with a morning hike instead. He didn’t tell Oli he couldn’t do dinner because he already has plans to go over Skyler’s. It’s the third time he’s seeing him this week, and he’s not sure if that’s weird.

“Yo, sorry I’m late!”

He looks up as Stella lurches forward to greet Oli, almost yanking his arm out. “Um. Why the hell are you blond?”

Their stylists bleached Oli’s hair platinum blond when the band was formed and continued to do it for years, but after they split up, Oli let his hair grow back out to its natural light brown color.

“Good to see you too, man,” Oli says, laughing as he bends down to scratch Stella behind her ears.

Trevor stands, grabbing Oli’s chocolate peanut butter concoction which is more dessert than drink and passing it to him. “No, but really,” he says as they head automatically for their usual trail.

Not that they get to do this that often. Even though Oli lives in L.A., his music career—as Oli Mak now—is going strong, so he’s not always around.

Oli takes a sip of his smoothie before he says, “I know, total throwback, right? But I felt like a change.” At Trevor’s skeptical look, he adds, “All right, so maybe Megan and I were watching some old concert footage, and she may have admitted she had a little fangirl crush on me with the platinum hair before we ever met.”

“Ah, I see.”

Oli met his fiancé, a former child actress turned independent filmmaker, when she directed one of his music videos, and he promptly fell head over heels for her. Well, that’s the story he goes with, at least. He conveniently likes to leave out the fact that when he was younger, he was obsessed with her on her Disney show Missy Molly, and that was why he sought her out to do the music video.

Trevor pulls back a bit on Stella’s leash because she’s getting too far ahead of them. She’ll soon wear herself out and fall into step beside him. “So how is Megan?”

“Actually…” Oli turns his head toward him as they walk, a grin spreading across his face. “She’s pregnant!”

“No way! Congratulations, dude, that’s awesome!”

“Thanks. I’m terrified, but also super excited. I’ve been dying to tell you, but I was kind of worried about it, honestly.”

Trevor frowns. “Why would you be worried?”

Oli tries to shrug off the question, but when Trevor pauses his step and continues to stare at him, he says, “Come on. I didn’t want to make you think of, uh, that.”

Oh.

Yeah.

A young couple sidesteps around them, so Trevor pulls Oli off to the side of the path where they’re out of the way. Stella whines but comes to wait beside them. “Oli. It’s fine. You know that wasn’t…”

He doesn’t want to finish that sentence. Doesn’t want to relive him and Sierra and their whole ugly mess. And he doesn’t need to, because Oli’s one of the only people who knows the truth about it.

“I know,” Oli says. “But the situation still sucked for you.”

That’s an understatement if he’s ever heard one. But Oli’s his friend—one of the only real ones he has left—so it’s easy to be happy for him. Oli’s always been everyone else’s biggest cheerleader.

“Yeah, it sucked,” Trevor says. “But you shouldn’t be afraid to share good news with me just because my life is a joke.”

“It’s not a joke.”

“Sure feels like it.” He doesn’t want the pitying look Oli gives him, so he shakes his head and steps back onto the path to resume walking. “Anyway, does this mean you’ll finally get married? You’ve been engaged, what? Like a year and a half already?”

“You know we haven’t had time to plan a wedding. But yeah, actually. We’re working on it now.”

“That’s great. I’m happy for you guys. You deserve to have your perfect wedding with your perfect bride.”

Oli takes a long pull of his smoothie, then clears his throat. “Thanks, but that’s something else I was nervous about telling you.”

“Why? I said—”

“No, I know,” Oli cuts him off. He slows down his pace as he says, “But you realize I’m going to want everyone there, right? It would feel weird for all of you not to be.”

“All of…”

Oh.

All of the band.

Well, shit.

Oli’s the only one of the five of them who stayed friends with everyone else after the split, so that makes sense. He just hadn’t thought about it.

But Oli’s giving him a painfully hopeful look, so he pushes the dread of coming face to face with Noah after all these years aside and forces a smile. “Yeah, of course. It’s your day. Don’t stress about it.”

“Are you sure it’ll be okay for you?” Oli asks. “With Skyler—I mean, er…”

As Oli flounders, Trevor realizes that’s what Oli’s worried about. Him and Skyler.

And it’s crazy how that’s not where his mind went. A few weeks ago, that would have caused him a meltdown. But now he and Skyler are friends again, right? So both of them attending the same event shouldn’t be an issue. Not that he wants the world to know they’re spending time together, but he should probably fill in Oli, because the guy looks like he’s about to give himself an aneurism.

“So,” he starts, “I guess I have something to tell you too.”

Oli quirks his head to the side and Trevor picks up the pace, keeping his eyes on the trail ahead as he tells his friend about how he’s reconnected with Skyler. Oli’s jaw is hanging open to an exaggerated degree by the time he finishes.

“How could you keep this from me?” Oli squawks loud enough to make a couple people’s heads turn their way.

“I didn’t keep it from you. This is the first time we’ve talked since it started.”

“You could’ve called me!”

Trevor kicks a stray rock off the path in front of him as he walks. “It’s not that big of a deal.”

Oli grabs his forearm, jerking him to a stop. “Don’t even give me that shit. Not that big a deal? This is like the freaking universe reuniting soulmates! It’s amazing!”

They’re in the way of the other hikers again, and so far, nobody’s seemed to recognize them, but Trevor would like to keep it that way and Oli’s getting too excited. And when he gets excited, he gets even louder than usual.

He pulls out of Oli’s hold and resumes walking. Once Oli’s fallen into step beside him again, he tells him, “It’s nothing like that. We’re just friends.”

Even as he says it, he doesn’t know if he believes it. At least on his end.

And Oli clearly doesn’t believe it either, because he asks, “Can you really be just friends with someone after you’ve had your tongue up their ass?”

“Dude, what the fuck!” He smacks Oli’s shoulder as his eyes dart around to make sure no one heard that. Everyone around them is moving at a brisk pace, minding their own business. But still, that’s not something you should shout in public, even if you’re not famous.

Oli at least has the sense to look abashed. “I’m sorry! I’m not trying to be crude, I swear—”

“Could’ve fooled me.”

“—I’m being serious,” Oli continues, ignoring his comment. “I’m happy for you guys that you’re reconnecting. But it’s hard for me to imagine the two of you as only friends and nothing more. I’ve never seen you together and not all over each other flashing heart eyes everywhere. Even before you officially got together, everyone could see it coming. And even when you were fighting, you still looked painfully in love.”

“But that was a long time ago,” Trevor reminds him. “Just because we’ve never been only friends doesn’t mean we can’t be.” He’s afraid he’s trying to convince himself as much as Oli.

“True, true,” Oli relents. “Nothing’s impossible. I just think—”

“Can we drop it? Did you already tell Skyler about the baby and the wedding?”

“Yeah, I called him last night. And, by the way, he also forgot to mention you two are talking again. Now I get why he was strange when I asked if he’d be okay with me inviting everyone. I thought he was worried Noah would punch him.”

“Drop it, dude. Please.”

Oli holds up one hand in surrender. “Okay, it’s dropped. You’re friends. That’s totally normal.”

Trevor groans and quickens his pace again until his legs are burning. But Oli’s also panting too hard beside him now to carry on a conversation, so he keeps it up.

Unfortunately, when he gets to Skyler’s house later that evening, he’s still thinking about Oli’s disbelief in the idea that he and Skyler can just be friends.

Sure, every time he sees Skyler, he wants to rip off his clothes and shove him up against the nearest surface to ravage him. But the important thing is he won’t actually do that, so no one needs to know. He’s not going to let his wanting more ruin this new friendship they’ve developed.

Skyler wouldn’t trust him with more after how badly Trevor hurt him the first time.

Fuck.

He doesn’t deserve more.

He had more. He had everything with Skyler, and he ran away from it. So what he wants now doesn’t matter. All that matters is what Skyler needs from him. And Skyler keeps calling him, keeps inviting him over, keeps asking him to stay well past dinner. He needs a friend, and Trevor can be that for him. He can.

Besides, it’s not like he couldn’t use a friend too.

When Skyler opens the door, Trevor’s surprised to see another man standing behind him. “Hey!” Skyler greets him, smiling brightly. “Sushi got here right before you. Hal brought it up for me. I got some for him too.”

Remembering the name as being one of Skyler’s security guards who lives on the property, he gives the man a wave. “Hi. I’m Trevor.”

The introduction’s likely not necessary, but Hal smiles and reaches out to shake his hand, a small paper bag cradled in his other arm. “Nice to meet you.” He glances between Trevor and Skyler before saying, “I’ll leave you guys to it,” and stepping past Trevor and out the door.

The way the man’s eyes assessed the two of them stirs a little discomfort in Trevor’s gut. But he reminds himself that Hal works for Skyler. It doesn’t matter what he thinks is going on here, because he can’t run to the press about it.

Once he and Skyler are settled with their food in front of the TV in the living room, Trevor mentions hanging out with Oli this morning. “He told me Megan’s pregnant,” he says, dipping a California roll in soy sauce.

Skyler shifts beside him. “I heard. Um… are you okay?”

Not this again.

He sighs and sets the roll back on his plate. After his talk with Oli, he knows what Skyler’s getting at. And shit. This isn’t a conversation he particularly wants to have, but if they’re going to be friends now, it would be weird for Skyler not to know the truth.

He has to tell him.