Page 68 of The Liar in Room 5

“Fair enough, my guy. Coloring at work is super important. Maybe your dad colors at his job?”

“He doesn’t,” Ben replied with a sad shake of his head. “His job is soooooo boring. He just types and types and types and types all day. But I know a job where you get to color at.”

“Yeah? What’s that?” Drew asked.

I loved how seriously he took his conversations with Ben. He treated him like a real person with thoughts and ideas because, well, obviously he was, and not like a kid he could brush off. He’d implied children weren’t in his future, but watching how carefully and kindly he treated Ben, I had to wonder if that was a throwaway opinion because that’s what his previous partners had wanted. If Drew said he wanted kids, I’d do my damnedest to get that man pregnant. It would likely take a while, but I was down for trying.

“I could be a teacher like Drew,” Ben exclaimed proudly.

“That’s a great idea, Ben,” Marc said with a smile. “Just so you know, teachers have to do a lot more than color.”

“Yeah,” Ben answered like Marc had lost his mind. “They gotta read stories too.”

“Ben, I’m your teacher’s helper, so I get to do lots of fun stuff, but they have lots of hard work to do.”

“Then I’ll just be the teacher helper,” Ben said with an easy shrug.

“It’s a good plan,” Drew agreed with a quick hug.

Marc caught my eye and gave me a knowing smile when he caught me looking at them. Over their heads, he mouthed, Just tell him.

I mouthed back, What?

He silently replied, That you love him.

That earned him a finger in response. It was true—I did love Drew—but Marc could keep his mouth shut about it.

The server came for our drinks, and I couldn’t keep my hands off my phone. Every few minutes, I’d check it for an update.

“Is everything all right?” Drew asked when Ben and Marc were busy arguing about what he was going to order for another appetizer.

Since I was paying, I wasn’t entirely clear why Marc wanted to police it. If the kid wanted crab legs so he could use the crusher things, let him have them.

“Uh, yeah, I’ve just got a deal working, and it got a little complicated.”

“Do you need to go call them? I don’t mind. The world doesn’t stop because it’s my birthday.” Drew smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes.

I couldn’t know for sure, but I suspected that over the years, his milestones hadn’t been celebrated much. There was no damn way I wanted him going back to a place where he thought he wasn’t important. Hell, he’d sneaked into the most important spot on my list of priorities, even if I couldn’t specifically say when it happened.

“I don’t think that’s necessary. It’ll be resolved soon anyway.”

18

Drew

Stop being so damn insecure.

Whatever Henry was doing on his phone must have been important. He kept checking his messages every few minutes, and it was absolutely wearing on me. It was silly, and my mind went to a bad place. Was it natural to replay my last few weeks with Jonathan? Because that’s exactly where my insecurity was taking me.

In the hindsight that only exists at one a.m. in an empty bedroom when sleep is impossible, my previous belief that I hadn’t seen anything coming was incredibly and profoundly wrong. Looking back, it was so obvious. The business trips they started going on solo, the working nights that came more often and lasted longer. Each time, I’d gone from arm candy to allowing them to decide I was a homebody.

I’d let them redefine me because I was afraid to stand up for myself, and if I was honest, it was because I’d known what my position was, which had never been on equal footing. The signs had all been there, but I was the ostrich with my head buried in the sand. Those middle-of-the-night introspection sessions had been an absolute bitch.

“It’s totally fine. I understand business is more important,” I reassured him.

To my absolute surprise, rather than grabbing his phone again or nodding his agreement, he put it on the table face down and turned the volume off.

“No, it’s not. I’m sorry for being rude.”