Page 23 of Worth the Risk

“Everything okay?” he asked Landon.

“I’m fine,” Landon replied, not really an answer but more a truth he was trying desperately to achieve.

Landon followed Gregory inside and said nothing as Gregory ordered him a slice of cheese with olives and a Coke, and a pepperoni for himself. Landon said nothing as Gregory gently placed his hand on the small of Landon’s back and guided him to a table in the corner, and Landon said nothing when Gregory passed by him, brushing the full length of their bodies together when he had to go pick up the slices from the counter.

“So,” Landon said.

“Thank you for coming.”

Landon swallowed and shoved the slice of pizza into his mouth so he wouldn’t need to talk.

“You still like the olives?” Gregory asked with a small chuckle.

Landon hated that Gregory knew him so well after so long.

“Why did you do it?” Landon blurted, uninterested in small talk.

Gregory nodded and set his half-eaten slice of pizza down on the table.

“Straight to the chase?”

“Always.”

“Alright, then. So, let me tell you how things happened from my perspective, okay? Since last night you made it clear howyouremember it going down.”

“By all means.” Landon gestured with his palm up in a swipe over the table.

“We agreed on Florida.”

Landon jerked his head in a nod.

“Then you changed the plans.”

Landon licked his lips and nodded once.

“So, I went to Florida, and you went to New York, and you expected us to carry on as we had been with over one-thousand miles between us.” Gregory fiddled with the straw in his Coke.

“It would have worked,” Landon countered weakly, Verity’s chastisement from the night before still clear in his head.

“Maybe for you.” Gregory sighed. “But not for me. I knew within a week of being apart from you that it wasn’t for me. I didn’t want to hate you, Landon, and I was afraid that I would.”

“What do you mean?” Landon flicked his eyes from his pizza to Gregory’s pained-looking face.

“You may have spent your life blaming our break-up on me, but if I hadn’t done what I did, the break-up would have come anyway, it would have just come later and been far nastier than it was.”

“It wasn’t nasty. You didn’t give it a chance to be nasty,” Landon bit out, spitting his words across the table.

Gregory nodded. “I know. You’re right. I know now, and I knew then that if I’d talked to you about it after I did it, you’d have begged me to reconsider, and I probably would have. But come on, Landon. How busy were you that first year? When would you have had time to talk with me, or do ridiculous shit like sexting, or drive for a day to meet me half way? Honestly, Landon.”

“I would have,” Landon countered with a childish pout.

“You’re just being petulant, and you can’t admit you’re wrong. I just told you I was wrong for how I went about things. Can you not admit that you’re wrong for holding this grudge against me?”

Gregory leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. Landon hated how calm he looked about all this, as though his biggest regret wasn’t sitting across the table from him with a spattering of pizza grease on his chin.

Landon chewed his lower lip into his mouth. His eyes felt heavy, and they threatened to overflow. He didn’t want to cry, especially not here, not in front of Greg. He pushed his chair back and stood, deciding instead to flee the restaurant.

Gregory was on his heels as soon as he hit the curb, but Landon managed to make it around the corner into the alley before he was caught. He fell to his knees and whimpered, holding back the full sob that threatened to escape.