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Sighing, he picked it up anyway. If he couldn’t talk to Juliet, maybe he could work off some of his nerves by messing with a cold caller.
“Hello?”
He should have known better. If there was ever a bad lucky penny, it was his sperm donor.
“Orlando?”
Tension shot up his spine at the sound of Cameron’s voice, which he recognized immediately even though it had been over a year since he’d last heard it. Since the day after last time he’d scened with Juliet.
How the hell did his sperm donor fuckingknow?Or was this the universe’s way of giving him a second chance to not let his bio dad fuck things up with Juliet this time? To show he could make a different choice —a better choice?
Or was it the universe’s way of letting him know he was about to massively fuck up again.
Closing his eyes, Orlando inhaled through his nose before answering, his voice chilly.
“Cameron. What do you want?”
A kind of startled cough reverberated over the phone.
“Ah well, you see, I was just calling to see how you’re doing.”
Sure, he was.
“I’m fine. What else.”
“That’s it. I’m… um… well, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about regrets I have in my life, and well, not getting to know my son better is one of them.”
Closing his eyes, Orlando pinched the bridge of his nose where he felt a headache coming on. This was a new tactic.Don’t ask. Don’t ask. Don’t ask.
He was absolutely not going to ask his sperm donor how much he owed. Orlando had already told him the ‘bank’ was closed. If Cameron wanted money, he was going to have to ask for it and Orlando was going to take great pleasure in telling him no. Then he’d hang up and give his mom and stepdad a heads up that Cameron was fishing for funds again.
“This isn’t a great time, Cameron.” It was never going to be a great time.
“Oh, uh right. Well, thanks for taking my call.”
Confusion whirled through Orlando. The man wasn’t trying to get him to stay on the phone? Wasn’t asking for money? Suspicion rose up inside of him. He must be seriously having issues if he was going for the long play like this. That or he planned to call Orlando’s mom next because he could tell Orlando wasn’t going to give him anything.
That was probably the most likely possibility.
“Bye.”
Orlando hung up before Cameron could respond and immediately dialed his mom.
“Well, hello,” she said cheerfully as soon as she picked up. “What a nice surprise! Lawrence and I both get to talk to our kids this morning.”
The casual statement nearly threw Orlando off his stride.
“Juliet called Lawrence?”
“Yes, she’s talking to him now.” His mom lowered her voice even though Orlando couldn’t hear Lawrence, which meant it was unlikely they were even in the same room. “I think she and that boy she brought to Thanksgiving broke up already. It’s too bad, he seemed like a nice young man.”
Seemedwas the right word, but he could hardly explain to his mom how London wasn’t all that nice or why Orlando knew it. He was glad to hear Juliet was already telling her family though. That seemed like a good sign. Maybe it was why she hadn’t called or texted him back yet either.
“Ah, well, sorry to hear that.” He even managed to almost sound sincere. “Um, anyway, I was calling because I just got a call from Cameron. It was a little strange, but I wanted to give you a heads up.”
His mom sighed.
“It’s been a while, I guess I didn’t really believe he’d be gone forever.” She didn’t sound upset, but she did sound disgruntled, like she was annoyed he popped up again. Orlando decided to take that as a good sign.
