No.
He stayed the course this time.
“You told me about sleeping around, and even before you told me, I knew about the men who got your number from the pub.”
Oh, God.
That hung there.
Just when Graham couldn’t think he could feel dirtier, viler, and less attractive, the ugliness came out.
Michael was honest.
“When I left here yesterday, I went to go get a drink, and when I was in the bathroom, there were two guys talking about someone. Later, I found out that someone was you.”
Graham felt like he was having a panic attack. The last thing he wanted this man to know was all the gross details of his last seven years.
How he’d degraded himself to feel.
How he’d hated himself so much that he’d stooped that low.
How he’d become…unrecognizable.
His plan was to never tell him the details of his debauchery, or how he’d been at rock bottom so much that he let men do disgusting things to him to break him.
Out of penance for his sins.
When he went to turn and break their gaze into each other’s eyes, Michael stopped him.
“Graham,” he said. “Stop.”
He couldn’t move.
Graham was now paralyzed with fear.
Michael continued.
“I saw the phone number, and I scraped it off the bathroom wall. I took care of it because no one is going to talk about you like that. I’ll kick the shit out of anyone who degrades you like I saw on that wall, Graham. I love you. I never stopped loving you. What I want is a second chance to prove I’m a better man than I behaved like seven and a half years ago,” he said.
He couldn’t take it any longer.
The dam broke.
Graham started crying, and Michael opened his arms and pulled him into his body to hold him.
To protect him.
To love him through the storm.
Oh, he understood.
This had been a rough patch for both of them. He was absolutely going to get this man to marry him.
“I have you, Graham. Just tell me what you want, and I’ll make it happen. I went about it wrong last time, but now…I want to make it right.”
Graham held onto him, and there was such safety in his arms. For the first time in a very long time, he felt like he would be okay.
Callen and Gryphen said that this man was a good man, and he had just enough faith left to hold on. Plus, a man who would scrape his phone number off a wall to save him…
