Chapter 6
CHAPTER
SIX
DONNIE
Sawyer waves me down the moment I step foot inside Mars. “Hey, how’d it go? How’s Connor?” he asks conspiratorially.
I pause on the public side of the front desk. Connor looks a lot better this morning than he did last night. His eyes were still a bit puffy when I left for work and he could probably use a few more hours of sleep, but he’s nowhere near as wrecked as he was when I brought him home.
“He’s fine.”
Sawyer leans over the front desk to whisper to me. “Is he still at your place?”
“Yes, he is,” I whisper back suspiciously. “Why?”
He glances across the lobby to where there’s a juice bar. The barista is serving someone and there are a couple of gym members sitting at the small café tables. He lowers his voice even more. “Connor’s boyfriend, Miles, came in this morning looking for him.”
“What?” Anger boils up inside me, hot and vicious, and every muscle goes taut, like I’m getting ready to pounce. The fucking audacity. How dare he waltz in here thinking he has any right to ask about Connor? “What did you tell him?” I growl.
Sawyer backs away from me with his hands raised. “Whoa, easy. I didn’t tell him anything. Just that Connor isn’t here, and I don’t know where he is.”
My pulse is raging with no signs of slowing down. If Miles came looking for Connor once, he can do it again. We have to protect Connor from the monster. He shouldn’t have to see Miles’s face ever again if he doesn’t want to.
“Bro, what’s up? Did Connor tell you what happened last night? Does it have something to do with Miles?”
It isn’t my story to tell, but I can’t get Miles banned from Mars without giving a reason. And I really, really want to get Miles banned. I nod toward the staff break room and Sawyer meets me back there.
“What did Miles say? What were his exact words?” I ask.
“He didn’t say much. Just that Connor didn’t go home last night and now he’s looking for him.”
“That’s all?”
“That’s all! I swear! What happened?”
“The fucking bastard,” I mutter. He made it sound like he was the good guy, the concerned partner who is looking for his missing boyfriend. Except the missing boyfriend ran from him for a reason and maybe the missing boyfriend doesn’t want to be found.
“Who? Miles? What did he do?”
I stalk to the front desk and wake up the computer we keep there for membership records. “Do we have a persona non grata list?”
Sawyer’s peering over my shoulder. “Uh, yeah, but why do we need it?”
“We’re banning Miles.”
“What? Why? Donnie, tell me what happened!”
I ignore him to dig through my bag for my reading glasses. A member comes out from the back of the gym at the same time and Sawyer immediately switches modes.
“Hey! Did you have a good workout? Awesome! Enjoy the rest of your day!”
When he turns back to me, I’ve found my glasses and the persona non grata list. “How does this thing work? How do I add someone to it?”
“You can’t. Only Beau or Gavin can.”
“Who the fuck came up with that idea?”
“They did? I think it’s so we can’t just add people we don’t like.”
I nearly throw the mouse across the lobby. “Fuck.” I tear my glasses off my face to rub my eyes and pace away from the computer. My adrenaline is spiking, my body is vibrating, and I know this is an overreaction. I force myself to take deep, slow breaths, but they’re not helping.
“Bro, what’s going on? You’re freaking me out.”
Beau pops up out of nowhere right then. “Hey, guys, morning.”
I ambush him. “I need you to add someone to the persona non grata list.” I tug Beau toward the computer and he stares at me like I’ve been possessed.
“What?”
I slap my glasses back onto my face and point to the screen. “Here. I need to add someone new. How do I do that?”
Beau looks to Sawyer who shrugs. “Beats me, man. He won’t tell me anything.”
“Who do you want to add?” Beau asks me, a scowl on his face.
“His name is Miles.” I don’t know his last name. I don’t know what he looks like. I don’t know anything about the guy except that he’s a fucking douchebag. But Sawyer apparently does. “You know him, right?”
Sawyer takes a step back from me. “Uh, sorta. I’ve met him before, if that’s what you mean. But I don’t like, know know him.”
“That’s good enough. What does he look like?”
Sawyer sends Beau a helpless look and Beau steps in between us.
“Donnie, hey.” He puts both hands on my arms and grips so tight I’d probably bruise if I wasn’t still wearing my winter coat. “Calm down. Breathe.”
I curl my hands into fists by my side and fucking breathe. It works this time. Kind of. Enough for the red tinge to fade out of my vision.
“Start from the beginning. Who is this guy and why do we need to ban him from the premises.”
“He’s Connor’s boyfriend.”
“And who’s Connor?”
“He’s a member.”
Beau cocks his head to the side. “You’re not making a whole lot of sense, Donnie.”
“Connor and Miles are both members,” Sawyer jumps in.
“Connor’s more regular. He goes to Donnie’s spin classes.
I haven’t seen Miles here in months. Connor comes in last night, right before closing, and he just collapses.
Right there. Just boom, on the floor. And he’s sobbing, like hysterical crying, tears and snot everywhere.
Donnie and I brought him to the break room and then… ” He looks at me and gestures vaguely.
I huff because this next part is going to sound bad. “He needed a place to stay, so I let him come home with me last night.”
“You what?” Beau nearly shouts. Across the lobby, the juice bar’s barista and the gym members are all staring at us, watching the commotion. Beau takes my arm and pushes me toward the break room. “Explain.”
“He needed a place to stay and I’ve got the guest room, so I let him come home with me.” I cross my arms and stare Beau down, daring him to say something.
The guy towers over me. He’s not the least bit intimated. “You brought a complete stranger home? And he’s one of our members?”
Connor doesn’t feel like a stranger, not anymore. He feels like… I don’t know, a friend? At the very least, an acquaintance. Except the only word that comes to mind is “mine.”
The word echoes through me and I almost stagger at how booming it is. Connor isn’t mine in any sense of the word. I just met the guy last night. I know nothing about him. He said Miles cheated on him, but there could be more to the story.
I’m pretty sure there isn’t though. I’m pretty sure Connor is exactly who he appears to be, and things with Miles are exactly as he says they are. I don’t know how I know. I just know, and that’s… terrifying.
“We don’t have a rule against that.” I lift my chin as I speak.
“What? Fraternizing with members?” Beau scoffs. “No, we don’t.”
“So, what’s the problem?” I’m deliberately being obtuse and it’s pissing Beau off, but I don’t care.
He runs a hand over his face. “Okay, listen, one thing at a time. You want to ban this Miles guy. Fine. Why?”
“Because he’s a fucking asshole.”
Beau pins me with an impatient look. “That’s not good enough and you know it.”
I have to tell him. I have no choice. I want to tell him, I realize.
I want him and Sawyer and everyone in the gym to know what kind of bastard Miles is.
It comes out of me like a compulsion I can’t stop.
“He cheated on Connor, with Connor’s best friend.
Connor walked in on them last night when he went home. ”
There, it’s out now, and gratification runs through me like I’m fucking high. Beau doesn’t look as angry as he should be though. He looks decidedly unimpressed.
“Okay, and?”
I frown. This isn’t going the way it’s supposed to. “And Connor was distraught. He couldn’t go back there, so I took him home with me.”
“And you want to ban the boyfriend because…”
“Because he’s a cheating bastard!” What about this isn’t Beau getting?
Beau sighs and shakes his head. “Donnie, we can’t ban someone because they’re cheating bastards. If we did that, we’d lose half our membership. Hell, we’ve got people joining us for the express purpose of sleeping around. Or have you forgotten about the condoms we stock in the locker rooms?”
He’s right and I hate it. I fucking hate it. I don’t care about all those other assholes and what they’re doing in the locker rooms. I care about Connor and what Miles did to him. “So what, are we condoning infidelity now?” I spit out.
It’s entirely the wrong thing to say and I can see how wrong it is on Beau’s face. Whatever patience he had is running thin now.
“We’re not condoning infidelity,” Beau says softly, but menacing enough that I shrink back from him. “But we’re not the fucking morality police either. As long as everyone’s a consenting adult, remember? That’s our policy.”
“I doubt Connor consented to being cheated on.” It slips out. I don’t even consciously think it. I want to take it back the second it’s out there because Beau is not happy.
His face is dark and if I didn’t know him better, I’d be petrified. I’m a little scared as it is. I take a couple steps away from him as my senses go on high alert.
“That’s not what I meant and you know it.”
Of course I know it. Beau is right. Everything he’s saying makes complete sense and under any other circumstances, I’d agree with him one hundred percent. But not when it comes to Connor, apparently. I can’t let it go. I want Miles gone so badly it lodges in the middle of my chest and burns.
Beau’s expression softens a touch. “If it helps, Sawyer mentioned the boyfriend hasn’t been here in a while,” he says, still cautious.
“He was here this morning. Asking about Connor,” I say through gritted teeth.
Beau nods as if that explains everything. “We don’t have to tell him where Connor is. But we can’t ban him unless he violates one of our policies.”
I’m not going to win this argument and I’ve got a class I need to get ready for. They’re going to get one hell of a workout today. I shrug out of my winter coat and turn to leave. “Yeah, fine, whatever.”
“Donnie.”
I stop, but I don’t turn back to Beau.
“Are you okay?”
I don’t know. This kind of reaction isn’t normal for me and I feel off balance, off-kilter.
“Gavin and I are always here if you need to talk.”
They are. They always have been, especially after Roger died. I’m not being fair to Beau and a trickle of guilt zaps away most of my anger. I slump, the outrage draining out of me, and I glance back over my shoulder. “Yeah, I know. Thanks.”