Page 24 of Unrequited Sloth

He wasn’t going over all that again. It was clear he needed to get his stuff out of here now. How he was going to do that was a mystery, but Bobby had always been a resourceful guy. He would come up with something.

Bobby flopped down on the bed. He was dead on his feet after the last few hours. A benefit of living in London was that you could rent a van at short notice, but it had cost a fortune. He’d been worried Alex wouldn’t let him back into the flat if he left to pick the van up, so he’d paid a premium for it to be brought to him. Whilst he was waiting, he’d moved all his stuff downstairs. Once he’d had the last of his boxes out, she’d slammed the door in his face, saying she was keeping the ring as it was the least he could do.

He wasn’t in the mood to argue with her, and it wasn’t like he wanted the ring back. His brothers would call him an idiot, but today wasn’t the time to let them know everything. Once he had the van, he rented a storage facility in North London, which was the only place that had space on a Sunday. He then had to offload all his stuff, taking a few bits to get him through the next couple of days. Bobby booked a chain hotel for the next three nights to give him some breathing space. The van place wasn’t open again until the morning, so that was tomorrow’s problem. The hotel had parking. Once he was in the room, he couldn’t be arsed to unpack, or shower, or do anything other than strip the clothes off he’d been wearing for a ten-hour flight and then another few hours lugging boxes around. He hadn’t eaten since the plane, but he just couldn’t be arsed to go out and get anything. The hotel didn’t have a restaurant either. It was just somewhere to rest his head, and that’s what he intended to do. He could deal with all the other shit tomorrow. He wasn’t due back at work until Wednesday, so that gave him a couple of days to sort his life out.

Dillon: We need to talk

Not the best message for Bobby to wake up to, but he was right. He had been hoping to delay that conversation, though. What was he supposed to say? “Good luck with my ex-fiancé. I hope we can still be friends.” There was no chance that was happening. Since it had all happened, he’d wondered why he’d stayed friends with Dillon at all. Was it a sense of duty from their university days? They’d had some great times, but it was like Dillon and the others thought they were still teenagers, even though they were in their thirties.

Deciding not to put things off too long, he agreed to meet Dillon in the West End for coffee mid-afternoon. Neutral turf was best for this conversation, so things couldn’t get physical again like they had in Las Vegas. Thankfully, Gabriel had been there to calm him down. Bobby needed to let him know what had happened yesterday, before Alex shared her warped version of events. How was he supposed to frame it? “Your sister thinks we’re fucking,” would not be something he’d want to hear. It was clear Gabriel adored his sister and wouldn’t want to be in the middle of all this.

Yesterday had been awful. He’d hated seeing Alex upset, but then he was angry at her accusations too. There were worse people he could be accused of having an affair with than Gabriel Mensah, but it just wasn’t true. All Gabriel had been was a friend when Bobby needed one. He hoped this mess wouldn’t stop them being friends going forward. He would really miss Gabriel if he were suddenly gone from his life.

Bobby groaned as he got out of bed. He needed to hit the gym. After all the drinking and eating over the last few days, he felt sluggish. The hotel room also looked like a bombsite, with his suitcase open and clothes all over the place. He needed to hang them up and find a launderette for the dirty ones. The storage unit was within walking distance, which had been deliberate. He had twenty-four-hour access in case he needed something. None of the furniture had been his, so there was nothing bulky he’d had to move yesterday, but he had a lot of trainers. It was one of his weaknesses. He’d bought seven new pairs in Las Vegas. Once everything was sorted with his clothes, he could head to the gym and then go straight to meet Dillon.

Bobby walked into the chain coffee shop. The place was massive, but he spotted Dillon quickly. The guy looked like a squashed potato. What Alex saw in him he wasn’t sure, but now wasn’t the time to be an arsehole. They’d known each other since they were eighteen, and Bobby just needed to understand why he’d done it.

“Do you want anything?” he asked Dillon.

“Does it look like it?” he replied, pointing at his half-empty coffee cup.

How long had he been here? Bobby was five minutes early. He sat down opposite him.

“Are you not getting something?”

“No. I don’t intend to stay long.”

“Suits me. We just need to get our story straight.”

“Our what?”

“It would be best if we didn’t announce that Alex and I are together straight away. Her parents don’t need to know about how we got together, just like they don’t need to know you’re fucking her brother.”

“That’s not true,” he hissed through gritted teeth. He didn’t want everyone knowing his business, even if they were mostly tourists.

“Let’s look at the facts, shall we? Gabriel’s had a thing for you ever since you met Alex.”

“What?”

“Don’t act like you don’t know.”

“Apparently he has form for converting supposed straight guys.”

“Well, he hasn’t converted me, and big deal if he has a thing for me. He’s a handsome guy. I’m flattered.”

“I bet you are, especially when he’s on his knees where he belongs, sucking your dick.”

“What the fuck do you mean by that?”

“I think you know what a blow job is.”

“Not that. The ‘on his knees where he belongs’ part. What do you mean by that?”

“Alex said he likes to be the bitch in the relationship.”

“Does Alex know you’re a homophobic twat?”

“I’m not homophobic. I just don’t think they should rub it in people’s faces. Keep that shit private.”