Page 16 of The Good Neighbour

For the first time, Josh saw the situation from that point of view. For the last few months, he’d been blaming himself. Maybe he hadn’t cared for Winston enough. Or perhaps too much.

“You know what?” he said. “You’re right. He is a bastard.”

Hugh reached across the sofa and clinked bottles with Josh. The proximity making Josh’s cock twitch.

“I’ll drink to that,” Hugh said with a devilish expression on his face.

He swigged from his bottle. Josh was transfixed. The way he did it was so erotic. Hugh’s prominent Adam’s apple contracting as he gulped down the beer. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and grinned.

“What?” Josh asked.

“I’m thinking about how weird life is. At the beginning of this week, I’m getting ten tons of shit on the telly. Now I’m sitting in your fancy house drinking to a bastard stupid enough to walk out on you.”

Josh snorted. “You don’t even know me. I could be the most annoying man on the planet.”

“I doubt that.”

They shared a glance that sent electric charging through his body and leaving him trembling.

“What about you?” Josh said, eager to change the subject. “How come you’re sofa surfing?”

Hugh leant his head back and groaned.

“A family falling-out,” he said. “Unfortunately, I’d been staying with my mother. Yes, I know how pathetic that sounds when I’m in my thirties.”

Josh frowned. “Not pathetic. I don’t know how anyone gets on the housing ladder these days. Especially in London.”

“You did all right,” Hugh replied.

“I got lucky. I made money quickly and my financial adviser told me to put it into bricks and mortar. I’m so glad he did. I take it you and your mother had a fall-out?”

“More me and my new stepfather. He’s a bit of an arsehole and doesn’t like what I do for a living.”

“Really? Why did your mum marry him then?”

Hugh shrugged. “Beats me. I guess love is blind or deaf. Both would be preferable where he’s concerned. To be fair, he treats her well. It’s just me he doesn’t approve of. He’s the chief executive of a hospital trust. He thinks it’ll bring shame on him. Not that I would take his shitty name anyway. I don’t think Hugh Hogg works, do you?”

“Not at all.”

Josh marvelled at Hugh. He seemed to be bravely carving his own way in life. No matter where the opposition came from.

“He sounds like an idiot,” Josh said. “He should be proud that you’re following your dreams.”

“Oh, he would be,” Hugh replied. “If my dreams were treating the sick and injured. Poor bastard got unlucky there, didn’t he?”

Hugh might come across as bulletproof, but Josh sensed that it was a façade. Hugh’s eyes told him that. He found a sadness there that Josh had an urge to try to banish.

“Sounds like we both have men in our lives who don’t appreciate us,” Josh said.

“You’ve got that right. Do you think your husband will come back?”

Once again, Hugh’s directness skewered Josh in the heart.

“Now that’s a question I’ve dodged asking myself for weeks.”

“And?”

Josh took a deep breath. “Probably not. There’s a solicitor’s letter downstairs that says he won’t. I just…”