Page 47 of Wingmen

Elliot laughed and shook his head. He couldn’t believe he feltsorryfor this condescending feminist asshole when he showed up this morning. Shitting all over his friends and Uncle Sal? Telling him how to treat women? Like he was totally spotless?

“You don’t tell me how to speak Spanish,” he said. He removed his hand from his pocket and pointed. “And you know something? I think it’s pretty fucking funny that you’re standing there tellingmehow to treat women, when it wasyouridea to go out andbeton how many we were gonnafuckthis summer. You wanna talk aboutconsent, homes? You ask that girl you took home from the bar if it wasokayto type up what you did with her in that stupid app? No? You didn’t stop in the middle of things to check in about that? Why don’t you take a look in the mirror, cabrón? Because when you pointing the finger at someone, there’s three more fingers pointing right back at you.”

And he shoved the hand back in his pocket and walked off.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Dustin

Dustin watched him go around the corner on the other side of the bridge. He wasn’t even angry – he was…speechless.Because the kid wasright.

Where had he gotten the idea that he was going to be able tomentorthis guy? What kind of self-regarding assholedidthat?

He spent the walk back trying to organize his feelings. He was angry. There were things he’d said that were true and important, and Elliot had blown it all off and turned it around on him. ButtellingElliot that would probably get him nowhere. He had to admit where Elliot was right and swallow the other stuff, and try not to preach, and hope he could eventually talk him around.

The knee ached when he got back, so he took an ibuprofen and lay on the couch with his phone in both hands over his head, typing and retyping the same message into a notes app for over an hour. When it was finished, he read it five times. Then he closed the app and went to Force. When he got back, heopened the app and re-read the note. Changed a few things. Pasted it into a text message. Changed a few more things. Sent it.

He didn’t hear from Elliot for the rest of the day.

Elliot

Bennet texted him around three. Elliot ignored it until after dinner.

He went down to the restaurant across the street to fortify himself with a cocktail while he read it. For reasons he didn’t totally understand, he ordered a whiskey, neat.

Something about the smell of whiskey on Dustin’s breath in the car.

He put the phone on the bar beside him and tapped it to read the message. It was long and rambling, like something a girl would send after you broke up with her. By the time Elliot finished reading it, his glass was empty, and his chest was warm. He ordered another and read it again.

It waskind ofa dressing down, but it also sounded like an apology. Which pissed him off. Because where did Bennet get off, being the bigger man? So now hegot to apologize and be all saintly? What about Elliot? What ifElliotwanted to apologize and be the bigger man? What ifhewanted to do the right thing?

He put the phone away and finished his whiskey and went back up to the room. He was mad. Because he felt…bad.

He kept thinking about the part of Dustin’s message where he’d asked if Elliot really didn’t use protection and was he tested because if not then Dustin needed to know. Elliot hadn’t really thought about that.

And he knew the real reason he’d gotten so angry about Bennet logging that girl to the app wasn’t because of some moralthing about women. He was just pissed that Bennet went home with a girl at all. And pissed at himself for being pissed, because what was he,gay?

He lay on his bed and putGolden Girlson and watched Dorothy try to seduce a Catholic priest. One of Abuela’s favorites.Forgive Me, Fatherwas the name of the episode, he was pretty sure. He pointed the remote at the TV and pulled up the menu to check.

Yep.

He sighed.Forgive me, Father.

Leave it to theGolden Girlsto hit him right where it hurt. Sighing, he pulled out his phone and wrote something for Dustin into a notes app, and put the phone on the nightstand.

He sent it the next morning.

Dustin

He woke to a text from Elliot, and left it unopened while he got up to make his coffee. The knee was still sore, so he took two ibuprofen while it brewed, and sent Tom a text to request an additional rest day. Then he took his cup to the couch to read Elliot’s message.

He was slightly disappointed when he opened it to find only three words:

Forgive me father

He’d been hoping for more. Also,father?What was this new angle of fuckery?

He sent back,I forgive you. Can you forgive me?