Page 14 of Unrequited Sloth

“Gabriel, is everything okay?”

There was noise in the background, but it was muffled so it sounded like she was out and had gone somewhere quiet to take the call.

“Is it true about you and Dillon?” he asked, not bothering with any preamble.

The gasp followed by silence was all the confirmation he needed.

“Why, Alex? Bobby worships the ground you walk on.”

She started crying. “Does he know?”

“I’ve no idea. I heard his friends talking about it. He’s out with Dillon somewhere.”

“We agreed we weren’t going to say anything until we were back.”

“Why, Alex?”

“I don’t want to get married. I’m not ready to settle down yet,” she said through sobs.

Gabriel sighed as he sat on the edge of the bed.

“Then why did you accept his proposal?”

“Because he did it in front of everyone. What was I supposed to say?”

It was a fair point. What could you do in a situation like that, other than agree? But she’d had a year to raise her concerns and hadn’t. He asked her why.

“I didn’t want to hurt his feelings.”

“And screwing his best friend is better than just ending the relationship?”

“You don’t understand, Gabriel. You’ve never been in love before. Dillon and I are meant to be.”

“So, you want to marry Dillon now?”

“No. Dillon never wants to get married after it messed his parents up. He doesn’t want kids either, and Bobby wants to have at least four.”

Gabriel closed his eyes. He was getting a headache. This was the first time he’d heard she didn’t want to have kids. Good luck explaining that to their mum. Gabriel might be gay, but she was always asking when he was going to find a man to settle down with and start a family. The difference between him and his sister was that Gabriel would love to have his own family, it was just unlikely to happen given his history with men.

“You aren’t going to tell him, are you?” asked Alex.

“That’s Dillon’s and your responsibility, not mine.”

“Thank you. I couldn’t bear for him to find out from someone else. I don’t want to hurt him.”

“He’s going to be hurt either way when he finds out about you and Dillon. I can’t even imagine what that would feel like.”

“That’s the thing. We aren’t going to tell him about me and Dillon just yet.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m going to break things off when we get home. Then, when the dust settles, we’ll make out we just got together. I know Bobby, and he will want his best friend and me to be happy. We work together, so he’ll understand how it happened.”

Gabriel was lost for words. Was she for real? Even if that’s what actually happened, who the fuck was going to be okay with their best friend getting together with their ex, especially when it was someone who called off their wedding two weeks before the big day.

“His friends were just talking loudly about it by the pool, and I overheard them. How do you think you’re going to keep this quiet?”

“Dillon will talk to them. You can’t say anything, Gabriel. We’ve got a plan.”