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They ushered me inside and sat me down on the couch. Jeremy brought me a glass of water while Sean sat beside me, his arm still around my shoulders. “Talk to me, Liam. What’s wrong? What happened?”
“I did something really stupid,” I said, my voice quavering. They waited patiently for me to speak, so I blurted out the whole sad, pathetic story. When I was finished, my throat was raw and my voice was hoarse from crying.
“I’m going to kill him,” Sean said matter-of-factly.
“Sean, don’t,” I said quietly.
He shot up off the sofa. “No! Liam, he doesn’t get to do that to you. If he wanted to break it off, he could have just said so. That right there was some first-class bullshit. He deserves a good beating, and I can give it to him.”
Before I could tell Sean I’d seen Marco in action for real and he could not, in fact, give him any kind of beating, my phone vibrated in my pocket. I pulled it out, part of me hoping it was Marco. It was Tony. Oh God, was he going to call us out on a mission tonight? I didn’t think I would be able to be in the same room with Marco right then. “Hello?” I said hesitantly.
“Liam, what’s wrong?” Tony asked right away.
The man was perceptive. I had to give him that. “I’m having a really rough night. Did you need me tonight?”
“No, not tonight. I was going to ask you to come on as the medic for this wedding we’re doing security for. It’s a paying gig.”
“I don’t know, Tony.” I stopped and tried to take a breath to stem the threatening flood of tears. “I don’t know if I can…” A sob rose up and choked me despite my efforts.
“Liam, what the hell is wrong? Talk to me.”
“Let me talk to him,” Sean growled as he reached for my phone.
I shook my head vigorously. Jeremy put his hand on Sean’s shoulder to still him and said, “I’ll talk to him.”
I reluctantly handed my phone to Jeremy and then turned into my brother’s arms, sobbing. “I’ve got you,” he murmured.
Jeremy came back with my phone after a while and handed it back to me. “I can honestly say I don’t think I’ve ever seen Tony get as angry as he was just now.”
“At me?” I asked incredulously.
Jeremy looked taken aback. “Of course not. At Marco. He was livid. I expect Marco will be hearing from him soon.”
I sighed. “Great. One more reason for him to be mad at me.”
Sean sat up and leaned away from me so he could look me in the eye. “Liam, that man has zero reasons to be mad at you. You weren’t the one who arranged a romantic night of stargazing. That was him. You also weren’t the one who pulled that shitty Grindr stunt. That was all him.”
“I just wish I understood why,” I said plaintively.
“He’s a shitty person. End of story.”
But I knew that wasn’t the whole story. Marco wasn’t a shitty person. He was kind and loving. I’d never seen him be cruel except to people who deserved it. What had I done to make him act that way toward me?
31
Marco
Well, fuck. I watched Liam walk out of my house without saying a word to stop him. I was frozen in place. He was gone and presumably wouldn’t be coming back. The house key he’d left on my counter mocked me. It was like it was saying,This is what you wanted, isn’t it? He was getting too close, and you were starting to care too much.
Right. I straightened. Liam knew what he was getting into when he decided to hook up with me. It wasn’t my fault he’d gotten his feelings hurt. My mind helpfully brought up images from the last time we’d fucked. I’d wanted to see his face when he came. I’d wanted to kiss him while I drove into his body. And yeah, that wasn’t fucking at all, was it? Which was the reason for the Grindr hookup. I had to get my head out of the clouds. I didn’t want to get attached. Liam just made it easy by walking away.
Then why couldn’t I swallow past the lump in my throat? Why did my stomach feel like it was lined with lead? My phone lit up with another message from Cutietwinkboi817. I picked up my phone to answer and saw the picture I’d left for Liam to see. I guessed it was the last straw for him after what had felt like making love the night before.
Cutietwinkboi817: Hey, Daddy, I’m all slick and ready for your big cock.
Christ. I hated when they called me Daddy. First, I was notthatold, and second, it just wasn’t my thing. I almost didn’t want to bother. I wasn’t feeling it anymore. Then again, maybe Cutietwinkboi817 could get things going for me. I put on my dumb-as-fuck Jersey-boy persona.
Jerseyjoe09: Where u at?
