35 #2
I knew the answer. We’d agreed on one thing and not the other. He’d been upfront and honest with me about his job, but I hadn’t been about being with my wife.
“I didn’t—I didn’t mean to—”
“You didn’t mean to sleep with the woman you married? Fuck, Orion. This is a disaster. Everything is beyond fucked up at this point. How the hell am I supposed to trust you?”
He had a point. I had to try. For the first time in a long time, I wanted to earn his love and trust. Because at some point over the last few months I’d fallen for the spunky, confident little dancer.
As much shit as he’d gone through, he still put on a brave face every day, got things done so that he could keep living his life, while hiding behind so many damn secrets.
Since I didn’t know how to answer him, I slid over to his side. He didn’t move away from me, which was progress, but when I touched his thigh, he jolted away from me. It only made my heart ache even more than it had before. I really had fucked everything up.
I now had a pregnant wife who, rightfully, would probably never speak to me again, and someone I wanted to do better with that didn’t trust me.
“If I’ve learned anything about you over the last few months, it’s that you don’t trust easily. It was wrong of me to break that. I completely understand if you don’t want to give this another chance, but I want to make it right.”
We didn’t get to talk much more about it when there was a knock at the front door. Sable let out a deep sigh, not bothering to put on more clothes. It was as if he was resigned to whatever was about to happen, not caring who saw him like that.
What I wasn’t prepared for was the voice that came crashing into the apartment. It made me want to hide because if anyone had been more pissed at me than Sable had been—it was Victor.
“Jesus, you’re okay. I was trying to call you, it kept going straight to voicemail. I’ve never had that problem with you. It’s stupid, but after the other night I kept thinking that you’d done something stupid. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if you had.”
Sable let out a small laugh, lacking humor.
I stood up from the mattress walking out of the bedroom.
If I was actually making an effort to no longer hide, that meant I couldn’t be a chicken staying in Sable’s room just because Victor was there.
If he was going to be mad at me, he could do it to my face.
When I walked into the room, Victor had his arms wrapped around Sable’s mostly nude frame.
They were friends—I needed to keep that in mind, but I still kept thinking about how they used to fuck.
It was hard not to feel that slimy flash of jealousy seeing Victor’s hands on him.
Something boiled low in my belly, begging me to rip him off the man that I no longer had a right to.
Did I ever have a right to him at all?
But that was when Victor looked up, noticing me. His posture stiffened as he let go of Sable, moving back to look at me. “What the fuck is he doing here?”
Sable turned to look at me, his arms going up to cross over his chest. It was the first time he acted like he was uncomfortable with me seeing him.
“I didn’t realize my phone had died. It’s been a rough couple of days.
” Sable hadn’t answered Victor’s question either, but he moved through the room, oddly enough, his phone was still lying on the floor where I’d found him passed out.
I hadn’t thought to grab it when the paramedics had loaded him into the ambulance.
It was only then that Victor took a look around the place.
It wasn’t that it was a mess, but it wasn’t as neat as it normally was, and there were signs that something had happened there.
The paramedics had to shove the couch to the side to get the stretcher through the room—one of them had knocked over a lamp.
I hadn’t even realized Sable went back to his room until he came back out dressed in a loose tank top and shorts. He was covering up around me. It didn’t feel right at all. We’d just been lying in bed together. I knew he was upset, but this felt... so final.
“Sable, what the fuck, man? What happened here?” Victor turned to look at me again. There was so much venom in his stare that it could have melted me on the spot. “Did you do something to him?”
He must have noticed the bruising on Sable’s arms from the IV at the hospital and the one failed attempt by the paramedics.
“Down, Fido,” Sable said as he moved to push his couch back into place. His strength hadn’t completely returned, so I rushed to help him.
It was as if I had challenged Victor’s masculinity or something.
He took personal offense that I was helping Sable, shoving me out of the way to help him.
I didn’t have time for childish games like that.
If he seriously thought I’d done something to hurt Sable, something I wouldn’t dream of doing, it made sense that his hackles were on alert.
“Would you relax? I didn’t lay a finger on him,” I defended.
As soon as the couch was back where it belonged, Sable went to right the lamp—Victor turned to face me again. “Please forgive me if I find it hard to trust a single word out of your mouth right now.”
My fingers twitched at my sides because it was hard not to be irritated. I’d fucked over more than one person in this whole situation. I deserved the way I was being treated, but he needed to let me explain.
“Listen, I got a call. I responded, but if you want more details, it’s not my place.”
That was when Sable spun to look at me. His eyes widened as if he couldn’t believe that I’d just said that.
In the past, I maybe would have just told Victor about how I’d called 911 getting Sable to the hospital after finding him passed out on the floor, but maybe this was how I earned his trust again.
“Yeah? A call, huh? Why the fuck would he call you?”
“Victor.” Sable placed his hands on his friend’s chest, pushing him backward because he was getting close. His breath blew across my face—it was as if he was about to hit me at any given moment.
It worked to get him to back off me. Victor looked at his friend as if waiting for an explanation. He pulled at his left arm, checking the bruise that was forming on the inside of his elbow. “How the fuck did this happen?”
Sable sighed before closing his eyes. “I have asthma.”
Victor tilted his head to the side. “That doesn’t explain why both of your arms are so bruised up.”
It only made Sable roll his eyes before he pulled from his friend’s hold. “Because I meant to call you when I couldn’t find my inhaler, I accidentally called him instead .”
I closed my eyes because I knew it wasn’t going to help my case.
There I was, just standing there in Sable’s living room, shirtless while the other man explained that he’d called me by mistake.
There was no way this looked good. I hadn’t taken advantage of him.
I’d done everything in my power to make sure he was taken care of.
“You heard him. It was an accident. You’re free to go now.”
Victor was someone else I’d gotten to know over the last few months. He’d never been cruel, even to people who had been rude to dancers. Protective, sure, but not cruel. This was a different side to him I wasn’t used to.
“Stop it.” Sable stomped his foot on the ground, and it got both of our attention.
His eyebrows were furrowed, his arms crossed over his chest. He looked between the two of us as if he were trying to figure out which child he wanted to scold first. It was adorable because he was so much smaller than both of us.
Pint-sized angry man. Watch out. Those were the most dangerous kinds.
“Calling Orion was an accident, but in the end, it was the right call.” He sighed, rubbing his temples.
“Am I freaked out about the hospital bills? You can’t even begin to imagine how much I’m freaked out about those.
With the club possibly being closed indefinitely, I don’t know how I’ll be able to pay any of my bills. ”
I took a step toward him, but Sable stepped back. “I don’t want to be saved. It’s the last thing I’ve ever wanted. Since I was a teenager, I’ve been taking care of myself, and it scares the shit out of me that I needed someone this time.”
And that was what had me snapping. I couldn’t stand by letting him crumble as he explained everything he’d gone through. No one needed to be that strong when they had people around them who wanted to be their support. To have their back, even when they’d never had it before.
The moment my arms wrapped around Sable, he sank into my hold.
The tears sprang from his eyes. I didn’t try to wipe them away because it was the only way he was going to heal.
He’d been too strong for far too long, and it was okay to shatter every once in a while.
It was okay to lean on others for support.
And this time, Victor didn’t try to stop me.