Page 104 of Nothing Special X: The Last Stand

He had to stop. That sentence was a blade that’d been cutting him deep.

“I had no right,” he said, the words pulled from a place that’d been rubbed raw. “No right, to say your name in the same breath as him.”

His hand slipped from the doorframe to his chest, pressing where the pain was the most intense.

“I know sorry isn’t enough. But I’m begging you.” He took a careful step closer to the threshold but still didn’t cross it. “Please forgive me. If you can’t tonight than someday. Just leave me a small place to earn my way back.”

Syn stayed turned away.

The silence stretched wider as he waited.

“Love,” Furi whispered. “Please look at me.”

Syn bowed forward as if it ached too much to stay upright, and Furi’s chest almost caved in.

He almost said his name again, pleaded harder. Instead, he forced himself to stand there and take his punishment.

“I’ve decided to close the shop,” he said after a long while. “I don’t think sinking more money into it is the best decision anymore. I paid out the remainder of the lease, and Marty is going to buy out my inventory for his shop.”

Syn shifted a fraction, but not enough to face him.

“It’s okay. I should’ve done it sooner.”

It hurt letting his dream go. He’d wanted to own his own shop since he used to help his dad repair bikes when he was ten years old.

But nothing hurt as much as this right now. Standing ten feet from Syn and feeling as though he was a thousand miles away.

“I was offered a manager job at Solo Motors in their parts division.” Furi wrung the small canvas bag strap between his fingers. “I start next week. It has good benefits. Steady hours.”

No response.

Furi nodded to himself.

He wanted Syn to say he was still pissed but proud of him. He wanted Syn to call him stubborn. He wanted him to tell him closing the shop didn’t make him a failure. He wanted his partner’s voice so badly his hands started to shake.

“Are you doing, okay?” he asked, voice fractured. “Do…do you need anything?”

He waited.

He wanted Syn to ask if he needed anything so he could tell him. ‘Yes. I need you to hold me. I need you to come home before your scent fades from our sheets.’

Furi stood there until hope turned cruel.

“Okay, um. I don’t wanna push you,” he said, voice barely holding. “I just wanted you to know that I love you. I love you more than anything, Corbin.”

Syn’s shoulders moved with one breath.

Furi turned away and went back into the house.

Ro was standing in the kitchen leaning against the island with a beer in one hand and his phone in the other.

Furi walked to the opposite side of the island, set the canvas bag down and opened it with hands he had to force to stop trembling. The moisture in his eyes gathered hot and stubborn, but he held it back.

“Um.” His voice broke anyway. “Ro, please make sure he’s taking his blood pressure pills.”

He took out the refilled prescription bottle and placed it on the counter, then the multivitamins.

“And I brought his vitamins because…”