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Oliver swallowed heavily, and when he met Victor’s gaze, he nodded. “No more. The only burns after this will be verbal ones from mean students who don’t like my style.”
Victor scoffed as he finally dropped Oliver’s hand and leaned back against the sofa. “You and I both know you’re never going to be that kind of professor. You’re going to be the one with the wait list six semesters long. And not because they can’t take their eyes off you,” Victor added when he saw Oliver look a little sad.
“Because of my shining personality?”
“Because you literally made me listen to an hour-long lecture about the teens who built Amarna,” Victor told him. “And when you were done, I still wanted you to keep talking.”
Oliver bit his lip. Hard. “You remembered the name of the city?”
“It was hard not to,” Victor answered him. “The way you said it…it sounded important. Like maybe one of the most important things I’ve ever had to learn.”
Oliver stared at him but said nothing, and eventually, he reached for the food box. Victor realized he probably went too far, but Oliver was letting him off the hook, and he decided the best thing he could do was take it.
Chapter14
Oliver wasout picking up the list of groceries that Victor had made, Oliver asking to eat in though Victor knew it was because Oliver had been able to tell that his body was refusing to cooperate with all the dinner and tourist plans he’d made for the week.
Victor felt a little guilty, but he believed Oliver when the younger man said nothing was better than spending a week lazing around in a blanket fort, watching old ’80s rom-coms and eating junk food. Maybe it was because it was the best vacation Victor had ever been on too, but in reality, Oliver just seemed…
Perfect.
At least, perfect for him, which made it that much harder to acknowledge their time together was almost up. He wanted to do something big, and he knew his one chance was the meteor shower that was going to peak the following night, but he wasn’t sure what to do about it just yet.
It also didn’t help that his spasms were triggering his migraines, so while Oliver was out, Victor was lying on the sofa with a cool towel draped over his eyes. He didn’t move much when his phone began to buzz, assuming it was Oliver wanting clarification on something, so he felt around, then hit the answer button and pressed it to his ear.
“Yes, angel?”
“Um. Do I have the right person?” It was most definitely not Oliver. It was the voice of a very familiar woman.
Victor sat up, his heart hammering in his throat. “Hannah?”
“Victor,” she echoed back at him.
His hands started to shake. He wanted to pretend like she could be calling for any other reason, but he knew better than that. Twisting his body, he let his feet slide to the floor with a heavy thud and ignored the way his thighs began to spasm.
“Is this a bad time?” she asked.
Victor laughed. “Depends on what you mean by a bad time. I’m not at work, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“Ah. No, I knew that. Charlie said.” Her voice wavered, and she took a breath. “The last time I spoke to him, he said you were out of town.”
Victor pinched the bridge of his nose, squeezing his eyes shut. “So you know.”
“I know,” she said. “Were you going to tell me?”
“I don’t know,” he admitted to her. “I didn’t really know what to do.”
“So you ran,” she said.
Victor glanced around at the living room of the rental. It was an absolute mess—evidence of Oliver in every single corner, and he realized he had never in his life been happier. “I ran. It was probably the best decision I’d made in a long time.”
Hannah was quiet for a while. “He said you and Alice were in an open relationship and you encouraged it.”
That startled a sharp, bitter laugh from his chest. “Tell me you don’t believe that.”
“I don’t believe it,” Hannah said, sounding exhausted. “I told myself to just accept it. He’s begging to come home, but I’m also pretty sure he’s with her.”
Victor waited to see if that admission caused any pain, but his chest felt a little numb, and his heart was just thumping in anticipation for Oliver to come back home. “I’m really sorry,” he finally said. “Not on her behalf, but…I don’t know. Out of pity for the both of us.”
