I fell on my knees and slammed my face on the ground. I rolled to face the sky and…exploded into sobs.
He’d lied. He’d said that he was serious about me, that he wasn’t just looking for an experiment. He’d led me on, and I let him fuck me.
Why did I keep falling for the ones who weren’t real? Why did I keep letting myself be sucked into guys who were only there for the moment and went right back to their women?
I sat up as a jogger came by.
“You okay there, man?”
I shook my head. “No. But it’s not anything anyone can help me with.”
“You look like you could use a friend,” he said, and picked up the cell phone I hadn’t even realized I’d dropped. “Who can I dial for you?”
“Mel…”
A moment later the phone was ringing. “Hey, Aaron!”
“Hi, Mel, my name is Everett. I’m here with your friend Aaron. He’s not having a good morning. We’re at Sixtieth in the park. Can you come on over and get him?”
“Yes, I’ll be there in ten minutes.”
“Okay, man. I’ll wait with him.”
“Thanks.”
He ended the call and handed the phone back to me, sitting next to me on the grass.
“You don’t have to stay.”
“No, it’s cool. You don’t look like you should be left alone. What happened?”
“My boyfriend…” I sobbed again.
“Oh, man, I’m sorry,” he said. “Break up?”
“Cheated. I just caught him, like five minutes ago. I don’t know why I keep getting sucked into these fuck-and-flee experimental relationships.”
“Oh, with a woman…” Everett blew his breath out. “Man, I’m sorry. That’s the worst. I’ve been in a few of those situations.”
We sat in the silence for a good few minutes. I had only one thing going through my head: that image of the gorgeous dark hair woman with her lips wrapped around Maddox.
“How serious were you?”
I sighed, crushing the image out of my head. “I was on my way there to give him a key to my new place,” I said, and held up the fob I’d put it on. It was one I had grabbed at the store the other day, one I couldn’t stop laughing at.
“I’m so sorry,” he said. “Any chance you might have been mistaken?”
“She had her lips around him,” I whispered.
“Oh. Man. That’s really bad.”
I leaned back on the grass, and just stared at the sky. I knew I was crying, but I didn’t know how to stop and I didn’t think it was important. I’d gone pretty quickly into the numb stage this time. The image just kept circling, but it wasn’t alone. The other men who had pulled me into their trap circled with it. Five times I’d fallen for someone who had no intention of staying with me, of being there for me.
“Aaron?”
I opened my eyes and found Mel standing over me, he dropped to his ass on the other side as Everett held his hand out. “I know you. You’re Melvin Garvin. You’re playing for Troy Trojans, the Rangers’ AHL team.”
“I am,” he said. “Thanks for staying with Aaron.”
