Page 103 of Nothing Special X: The Last Stand

“Never.” Ro held his gaze. “He’s hurt, Furious.”

Furi rubbed his hand over his own scruff that’d been neglected.

“And believe me…he needs you,” Ro urged. “He just needs to know he can still trust you.”

Furi stared at Syn’s back.

The open door felt like a boundary he shouldn’t cross unless he was invited.

But every instinct in him screamed to go to his partner, wrap his arms around him, press his face between his shoulder blades, and beg until his knees hit the concrete.

He didn’t.

Furi held the frame with one hand, digging his fingers into the smooth wood.

“Corbin,” he said humbly.

Syn didn’t respond.

“I know you asked for space,” he said. “And I’m trying so hard to respect that.”

Syn’s shoulders shifted, but he didn’t turn around.

“I know you’re still mad, and you have every right to be,” Furi croaked, forcing the words past the knot in his throat. “I thought I’d know what to say when I got here. I’ve been saying it in my head for days. In the kitchen. In the shower. At the shop. Every time I looked at my phone and hoped it was you.” His voice caught.

He tightened his grip on the doorframe until his knuckles hurt.

“But standing here now, none of it sounds like enough.”

Syn remained still.

Furi’s eyes burned. He squeezed them shut, angry at himself. He’d promised he wouldn’t come here and fall apart.

He pulled in a breath that scraped all the way down.

“I miss you so much, love.”

Syn lowered his head even more, his knuckles whitening where he gripped the railing.

Furi saw it and almost stepped forward. Almost.

“I know I hurt you,” he continued. “I lied and I made decisions that belonged to both of us. I told myself I was helping take the pressure off you.”

A bitter sound left him.

“I was lying to myself before I lied to you.”

The railing creaked.

“I should’ve talked to you,” he confessed. “I should’ve sat at our table, looked you in the eye, and told you I was terrified and that I didn’t know how to save the shop. That I hated watching you work so hard. And that every time you came home tired, I felt like I was failing you.”

Please turn around…please.

“But instead of telling you the truth, I…” Furi’s voice roughened. “I never should’ve given those strangers what belonged to you.”

Outside was silent except for the whisper of evening traffic in the distance.

Furi lowered his voice. “And what I said to you before you left…”