Page 53 of His Father

He smiles in reply. “Just at an old friend’s place along the beach. I was jogging when I came across you. I was going to approach you but then Dad appeared.” I don’t say anything because I promised him I wouldn’t. “You’re falling for him, aren’t you? Not surprising if he’s like that with you.”

“Like what?”

“Happy and playful, smiling like somebody half his age…”

I snort. “You like pointing out the age gap don’t you?”

“Yep, just like you will in a few years when you want kids and a marriage and he’s fucking a different woman every weekend because he’s bored but he feels indebted to you because you made him feel shit he hasn’t felt before and because you’re my closest friend. It’s such a fucking TV drama.”

“Wow, Maddox, say what you really feel…”

“I’m not trying to be an ass. I’m your friend so I’m being real. I don’t want you to get hurt but he will hurt you,” he states, taking my arm and pulling me into a trinket store. “I need some more incense sticks.”

“I need to get high,” I murmur, and he hums his agreement. “He can only promise me what every other guy can promise me…”

“No, he can’t. Because he can’t give you kids or any of that other shit. He won’t want babies at his age.”

“Maddox, he’s not old. He’s just older than me.”

“That’s what he said to Cassius.” He runs his fingers over long, narrow boxes until he finds the scent he wants. I love stepping into stores like this, the different flavors in the air combined is so beautiful. “He said you’ll leave him soon anyway because he’ll never give you what you want.”

“You’ve been talking to Cassius about my relationship?”

He taps me on the head with the narrow box and smiles mischievously. “I’ve been kept up-to-date with the development of you fucking my dad. I was ready to swoop in and take you away if he fucked you over.”

“How chivalrous…”

“I’m here for you when he fucks it up and he will. He can’t be faithful. He cheated on my mom, did he tell you that?”

I blink at him. “We haven’t approached the subject but I trust him. I’d like it if you didn’t put shit in my head that doesn’t need to be there.”

“And what about the no-kids thing? Doesn’t that bother you?”

“No, I’m not sure I want kids anyway and if I ever do I’ll cross that bridge when it comes to it. Can’t I just enjoy the amazing sex and fun we have without all of this?”

He makes a dramatic puking sound when I say the word sex.

“You brought it up. Which I don’t appreciate,” I grumble, grabbing the box from him and marching it to the checkout where a woman takes his money and puts the incense sticks into a paper bag.

His phone starts to ring so he steps to the side and I notice a sign on the counter for an herbal, liquid penis enhancer. Like Viagra but you rub it onto the dick, or so it says.

I press my lips together to stop myself from laughing and say to the woman, “Can I get some of that, please?”

She raises a brow at Maddox who looks at me with his jaw on the floor.

“He has performance issues,” I add loudly, pointing at Maddox who hangs up the phone as I pay for the liquid and tuck it into my pocket. It’s in a little brown bottle with a tiny little cap. Surely this small amount can’t be enough. I should have asked for more.

“You’re a bitch, you know that?” He shoves me but catches my arm before I stumble and just like that, everything is kind of okay.

Little does he know the gift is for Sargent, as a joke for his birthday. Now, what can I get him as a real present? The man has everything.

Then it hits me. I don’t need to buy him something.

I scroll through the images on my phone until I find the one I need. I grin.

“Let’s go home, I feel like drawing,” I say.

“Drawing what?”

“Never you mind.”

“You sounded so British then.” He smiles down at me, showing his perfect teeth as he bumps his arm with mine.

I bump him back. “Thank you for giving me another chance, Mad.”

“I could say the same to you,” he replies, slinging his arm around my shoulder. “Just… don’t let me hear it, or see it. Let me pretend you aren’t together.”

I laugh at that and blow out a breath. “I’m making plans to go to Africa next year with Cassius. He sent me the details last week.”

“He said.”

“What do you think?”

“I think I want to come with you but I have obligations now. Big ones.”

“Why? What’s going on?”

His frown returns and his eyes look so troubled. “Nothing to worry about, not yet anyway.”

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