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I wake up to the sound of banging. Not the good kind of banging either. I blink a few times, letting the bedroom of my apartment come into focus before concentrating on the sound. It’s coming from my door. Someone is knocking. No, someone is pounding on it.
I groan, my face sore as hell, as I reach for my phone and see it’s after noon. I also see I have several missed calls and texts from Gage. I’ve ignored him ever since I told him Autumn fired me.
My phone buzzes with another call from him and I swipe to answer. Before I can even say anything, he says, “Answer your fucking door before someone calls the police on me.”
“Then stop fucking banging on it. I just woke up. Gimmie a minute.”
I drag myself out of bed and pull on sweatpants and a shirt, wincing at the twinge of pain in my ribs. It feels like it’s been days since I left Autumn, but it’s only been over a day. I arrived back in Austin at two this morning after catching a late flight and I’m thankful for the pure exhaustion that allowed me to sleep. Otherwise, I would have been up all night continuing to kick myself over how I handled things with Autumn. And now I’ll probably have to rehash it all over again with Gage.
I answer the door to a very annoyed Gage Díaz. “What are you even doing here?”
His gaze takes in my face and the bruising that probably worsened overnight. He mutters a curse then shoves his way into my apartment. “I was worried about you, you jackass. And clearly for good reason. You look like shit.”
“Thanks.”
“What the hell happened? Let’s start with where you were when those pictures were taken and why Autumn fired you then we’ll deal with the fact that you and Ben Townsend have matching bruises.”
I sigh and sink onto my couch, gently cradling my head in my hands. “I wasn’t there. I should have been. She had every right to fire me.”
“Except that’s not why she fired you,” Gage says, voice calmer now.
“No. Not at all. I fucked up.”
We’re both silent for a long while before Gage joins me on the couch. “I knew it.”
I glance over at him questioningly.
“That your fake relationship turned real.”
I lean back into the cushions. “That obvious?”
“Dude, you should have seen that kiss at the airport. That you two would be able to ignore that chemistry for long seemed doubtful. Then the way you responded when she got hurt and those pictures in the pool. I knew you had it bad.”
“We weren’t together then.”
“But not long after.”
I shrug.
“So, tell me, how big of an idiot were you?”
I scrub my hands over my face. “It’s a long story.”
“And not so long ago I had a friend listen to how I fucked up and helped me get over myself. I think I owe him the same.” He settles fully into the sofa. “Lay it on me.”
I nod and take a breath. “You know I was in the foster system, but there’s things I never told you.”
I go on and tell him about my experiences growing up, meeting Tom and Kyle, and why I wasn’t there when Autumn met Ben. I tell him about trying to deny my attraction to Autumn, skipping the intimate details, and about what happened after the last voicemail was released. When I’m done, he looks a little shell-shocked.
“That’s a lot, man. Shit. I’m sorry about what you went through. Really.”
I give him a nod of thanks.
“But man, you messed up big time with Autumn. You didn’t even talk to her about it at all.”
“Yeah, I know.”
