Chapter 5
CHAPTER FIVE
MILES
He was shivering, though he knew it had nothing to do with being cold.It was the edge of summer and the breeze was warm, but his adrenaline made Miles’s teeth chatter like he was in the Arctic.
Going home with Selene, he’d known he was going to learn things he didn’t want to learn.He knew that Selene was going to laugh in his face and use whatever she was doing to hurt him.She hadn’t disappointed.
When he brought up Jake, she’d just shrugged and said, “I need more than your limp dick to satisfy me.”
Miles should have blamed her for that.After all, the only reason he ever went soft was when she was being cruel to him.
He’d started to suspect she was testing him when they had sex, seeing how badly she could make him suffer—make him hurt.
Then, when he was close to falling apart, she’d hold him close and tell him that it wasn’t anything to worry about.
He should have known he wasn’t the only one in her bed.He was just the only fool who’d taken her seriously about living together.He was a glorified maid, chauffeur, and sex-doll.
She was unapologetic about it.
“You don’t care, do you?” he’d asked her as he packed his single suitcase with everything he owned.“Like, this genuinely means nothing to you, does it?”
“I don’t know why it should,” she said from her spot on the sofa.She had wine and was texting someone—likely Jake.“At some point you need to grow up and realize the only way you’re ever going to be happy is by focusing on yourself.”
It was odd advice coming from someone as privileged as her.
But in that moment, it didn’t matter.What did matter was the fact that the only thing truly hurt was his pride.
He’d let her run his life—he’d let her systematically take everything away until he had two-hundred dollars in his savings and a single suitcase.
He’d come back from a lot worse.Hell, he’d started with next to nothing, and he could do it again.
He just hadn’t expected it to all fall apart like this.
And he hadn’t expected to confront the fact that he was foolish enough to be in this situation.
Selene just gave him a little wave as he left, and he didn’t look back as the door shut.
The ride down to the lobby was painful and humiliating, but not as bad as collapsing on the stoop of the building next door as he realized he had nowhere to go.
He could afford a single night at some roadside motel, but not the Uber to get there.
He had a credit card with a little room on it for a meal or two, and then…well, he was fucked until he started working again.But even that wasn’t going to get him a place to live.It would be maybe enough to offer a friend rent for a couch, but nothing more extravagant than that.
He still had until November before he was finished with school.He could probably get housing for the next semester, but that left an entire summer with nowhere to go.
He pulled out his phone and drew up his contacts.For a moment, he hesitated with his thumb over Oliver’s name.But he couldn’t bring himself to do it.He didn’t want to rain his sadness over Oliver’s joyful parade.
Miles couldn’t do that to him.
He thought about Juno, but he was also dealing with something he wasn’t ready to talk about, and Miles wasn’t going to add his own relationship trauma to that. He loved his friends too much to be a burden.
His stomach twisted, but then he scrolled up and stared at the two new names there.
Emmett.
Cosimo.
Something in him snapped, and in the place of cowardice, came something else. Bravery, maybe? Or feeling so unhinged and so lost and so…just fucking confused that he didn’t know what to do? Whatever it was, his thumb hit Emmett’s name, and he put the call on speaker as it began to ring.
And he didn’t have to wait long to hear a voice he so desperately wanted to hear.
“Hello?” He saw the words scrolling across his captions app.
Silence hit him for a long beat before he remembered he had to answer.
“Um.Hi.Sorry…hello,” he said.
“Miles? Where are you? Tell me you’re okay.”
Obviously, Emmett had spoken to Selene and gotten her version of the events. Considering the way he and Cosimo had behaved at lunch, he was confident enough to believe they didn’t buy her bullshit. If she bothered trying to sell any. She seemed utterly and completely unashamed of the truth.
“I’m okay,” he answered.
“But you’re calling us,” Emmett said.
Miles squeezed his eyes shut, embarrassed. “Mhm. Yep. Sorry, if you’re busy…”
“Not even a little bit. We spoke to Selene and she said you had a fight.”
His laugh felt painful against the back of his throat. “If you want to call it a fight, yeah. It’s over.”
“Listen,” Emmett said.“I know Mo and I fucked up really, really badly with her. And we should have said something at the restaurant. We shouldn’t have let you leave like that.
” He paused, and though Miles couldn’t hear his deep breath, he had a feeling he was taking one or two.
“We can’t fix what she’s become, but we want to help you. She told us you left.”
“I did, yeah,” he confirmed.“She’s been sleeping around this whole time.”
“We know,” Emmett said.In spite of the tinny voice, Miles could tell he was tired. “I want to come get you.”
Miles blinked in surprise. “Uh.”
“Please. Even if it’s just to talk,” Emmett said. “Today was a mess, and I don’t mean to sound like an asshole, but I know you don’t have anywhere to go right now. So just…will you tell me where you are? Please?”
Miles swallowed heavily. In for a penny, he decided. He was all out of pride, so what more did he have to lose? “I’m still at the apartment, the next building over, near the garage.”
“Don’t go anywhere. I can be there in ten minutes. Okay?”
Miles hesitated a beat, then nodded in spite of the fact that Emmett couldn’t see him. “Yeah. Yes. Okay.”
“Okay.”
And then the line went dead.
His phone rang again almost exactly ten minutes later, and he saw it was a FaceTime. He picked up, startled to see Emmett’s face—mostly dark from the road, but still very much him.
“I’m at the apartment building now, but I don’t see you.Did you leave?”
“I’m still at the building next door,” he said in spite of himself. He both did and didn’t want to do this. “I’m kind of behind the row of bushes. I didn’t want Selene to see me if she left. Or if…if Jake,” he choked on the man’s name, “came over to see her. I didn’t want to know.”
Emmett hummed, a low rumble that crawled under Miles’s skin in an oddly good way.“I understand. Let me just…Ah, I see you.Stay right there.”
Miles was pretty sure he couldn’t have moved even if he’d wanted to.
He felt pinned to the step, his phone still in his hand even after Emmett ended the call.
A beat later, and he saw a shadowy figure approaching.
Miles managed to unfreeze his limbs and stand by the time Emmett appeared under the fading evening light.
“You look awful,” Emmett said.
In spite of himself, Miles snorted a laugh.“Thanks.”
Emmett just grinned and held out his hand, and when Miles didn’t react, he reached forward and grabbed the handle of his suitcase.“I’m parked in the guest spot, so we should hurry.”
Miles blinked at him, not following.“Um. Where?”
Emmett’s turned around, his brow furrowed.“Please. I’m over at Selene’s building.”
Pressing his hand to his forehead, Miles closed his eyes.“No.Where are you taking me?Because I’m still trying to figure out what I’m going to do, and I don’t have cash for a hotel, so…”
Emmett turned back around and walked forward, stopping only when he was inches away from Miles.His hand touched his chin, drawing his gaze up, and Miles wanted to cry at the kindness he saw in the man’s eyes.
“We have a pool house.It’s not anything fancy, but it’s fully furnished, and it’s got a tub and a shower so you can soak and relax.Mo and I have no problem with you using the kitchen for anything you want, and it’s not that far from town if you have work.”
“I uh…I don’t have work right this second. I teach a couple of summer courses,” Miles said, his voice a soft, ragged mess of emotions.“But I don’t start until the first week of June.”
Emmett nodded.“Then you have a few weeks to kick your feet up.Maybe get some sun by the pool.”He dropped his hand, but only to grab Miles’s wrist, and he tugged him a step forward.“Come on.”
“I don’t have money,” Miles argued, pulling back against him.“I can’t pay rent.”
“We’re not asking for rent.We’re trying to make amends.”
Miles successfully managed to free his arm, though he missed the touch.It had been so, so long since anyone had been gentle with him.His throat felt a little tight.“I don’t think that’s your job.”
Emmett scoffed and rolled his eyes.“Yeah, well, we enabled her to be…this.It’s something Mo and I have to deal with, but the least we could do is help you right now.”
“To make yourselves feel better?” Miles asked.He was shocked at his own boldness, but he was also out of fucks considering his situation.
Instead of getting angry, Emmett just laughed. “Yeah, that’s definitely part of it.I don’t like knowing I screwed up in such a big way.But it’ll help you, won’t it? And besides, we both really liked you.”
Miles couldn’t really argue, though he wanted to. How could they like him when all they knew was the mess he was right now?
If he was less desperate, he might have said no, but for the foreseeable future, he really had nowhere else to go.“I have a friend who might be able to help me, but he’s on his honeymoon.So…maybe just until he gets back.”
Emmett looked both relieved and disappointed.“Fair enough.Now, have you eaten?Because you two bailed on lunch before we could order anything.”