The idea was a bitter thought that stuck in the back of Callum’s throat. He should be the one to help. Jack was his, and he wanted to cook for him and tuck him in and repay even half the kindnesses that Jack had shown him. The idea of someone else being in New York to take care of Jack in the ways that Callum should be was painful.
“My friend Landon is out to stay with me. He’s the one that I told you about before. He lives in LA.”
Callum dropped the phone and stared at it in shock.
“Landon Miller?” Callum managed to ask after he’d recovered the phone.
“Yeah, how did you know?” Jack asked.
Callum put the phone on speaker and set it on his kitchen counter, then rubbed the heels of his hands into his eye sockets.
“He’s my boss.”
“What?” Jack asked, shocked.
“My boss. Landon is my boss.”
“Shit.” Jack breathed out.
Callum felt a pang of momentary relief, but it quickly turned into angry disappointment.
“So my boss is the one who gets to come take care of you. Great.”
“I didn’t know you worked for him.”
“It shouldn’t matter if I work for him or not. What matters is someone else is there with you and I’m not because you’re so stubborn with your August, August, August shit.”
Callum walked away from his phone, Jack’s silence echoing through the apartment. He paced back across the floor and took the phone off speaker, holding it up to his ear.
“I’m having a lot of mixed feelings right now, and I need to go,” he finally said.
“Kitten, wait,” Jack begged.
“I can’t do this right now. I’m sorry, okay? I just need some time to sort through how I’m feeling because it’s a little frenetic and I feel like I’m losing my mind.” Callum rubbed at his lower lashes.
“Callum,”
“Jack.”
Callum’s use of Jack’s name seemed to stop him in his tracks.
“Alright, kitten.”
“I’ll talk to you soon.”
Callum hung up the phone and pushed it away.
His online boyfriend was friends with his boss. His boss was the person in New York taking care of him. Landon had known Jack was sick. Landon had been with him for almost a week, and Landon hadn’t told him. Of course Landon hadn’t told him. Why would Landon tell him? He didn’t know.
Nobody knew.
This online relationship seemed so real to Callum, but in actuality, it was possible that no one even knew he existed. It didn’t matter what Jack told him because Jack was across the country and Callum had no way of proving any of the shit Jack said to him was true or not. Callum hated this doubt, this concern. It chipped away at him and ate at the edges of the feelings he’d developed for Jack.
He called Jack back.
“Hello?”
“Does he know about me?” Callum bit out.
