Page 50 of How We End

“You’re right.I’m sorry.”She patted my cheek.“I only ever want what’s best for you boys, and I’m worried about you.You are not like your father.You never were.”

“I’m fine.Don’t let Dad pay for parking.”I kissed her quickly and headed up to change.

Thankfully this was just a one-day holiday and they’d be on a plane in three days.

CHAPTERTWENTY-FIVE

WYATT

November 26

I flopped down on the bed, cramming my hands in the sweatshirt’s pocket.I pulled out the mouth guard and looked at it.It was such a weird thing to have, and yet it made me sad.I missed him.I missed talking to him.Seeing him.I had thought some space would help make me remember what we were.But that whole absence-makes-the-heart-grow-fonder thing was true.

Which made little sense, because all we had was sex.We hadn’t spent enough time together for me to miss him.To constantly be thinking about him.Maybe this time apart would do us both some good.Remind us how different our worlds were.

My phone rang.I was sure Morgan had some sort of spy working at the Family Mart and knew I wasn’t there yet.“Yes, I’m going,” I said into the phone.

“Tell me where, and I’ll join you,” Julian said on the other end.

I closed my eyes, fighting back the sigh of relief.“Anywhere but here.I think I found your mouth guard.”

“Is it blue?”

“No, it’s clear.”I held it up in the gray light.It looked newish.

“Then yeah, it’s mine.Where did you find it?”

“Who else’s would it be?”

“If it’s blue, then it’s Anders’s.He leaves them everywhere.White with a blacked-out tooth, that’s Mason’s.Sometimes that fucker wears my shit.Was it in my team sweatshirt?”

“Yeah.Is that weird?”Not the mouth guard, but that I had his clothes on.

“Weird that you’re wearing my sweatshirt?Not as weird as me wearing your underwear.”

I snorted out a laugh.“If I said that wasn’t the first time someone had said that to me, would you think less of me?”If it weren’t so easy to talk to him, I could end this right now.Give him the wholeI’m sorry but I’m going to have to let you go.

“Nope.Would you think less of me?”

In a different life, Julian and I would spend this holiday getting sushi and watching some stupid movie.He wouldn’t have a game, and I wouldn’t have clients.That was what I had really wanted that night of Halloween.For us to live a different life, not be different people.“No.”

“So where are we going?”

I could tell he was driving.I rolled over on my side, setting the mouth guard on the nightstand.“Somewhere with better coffee.”

“Rough morning?”

“Yeah.And you?”

“My dad woke me up at six to watch films so he could point out everything I got wrong in my last ten games.Then my mother decided to advocate for my wife.So great morning.”

The word “wife” shouldn’t have cut as deep as it did.Most of my clients had one.Wives they loved and would never leave.They only came to me because the women they loved were too bogged down by being a wife and mother to want sex.I never cared if I lost them to their wives.But Julian was different.“I’m sure your mom is just concerned.”

“There is nothing to be concerned about.It’s over.I’ll be the first Silver to have the mark of failure.I wonder if that’s four sixes or some other mark.”

“I think it’s a scarlet letter.Are you sure?”

“Yes.She fucked another guy.How can I forgive something like that?”