It’s ok.
Casper texted back almost immediately.Damn twinning.
Bullshit.Want me to come down there?
Dante sighed.He was supposed to have gone home over a month ago.He had postponed his contract with the cruise line, and they had not been super cool about it.Not many people wanted to work on cruise lines since the pandemic, so now they were short-staffed.Which meant they were pissed but open to him returning.
No, it’s cool.
What are you waiting for?For her to ask you to stay?
Dante leaned against the wall of the house overlooking the small side street, two turns down from Ventura Boulevard.In the background, he could hear people moving along the busy thoroughfare, going to restaurants, taking their babies for walks in strollers, heading up to the hills for a hike.Living.
And what was he doing?Waiting.
Dante:What if she doesn’t?
Casper:Idk.Shit, bro.You love her, right?
…
Casper:So, yes.Only you know what you want and what you’re willing to sacrifice.If you stay, what does that mean?You join the band again?You sign that stupid nonfrat clause?Don’t get me wrong.I love Ellery.She’s awesome.But she’s going through a shit-ton of real life stuff right now.Do you want to take that on?
Did he?Yes.If she would ask him.Also, no.He remembered how all the hiding before he had come out had worn away at him, like an archaeologist chipping at stone.He didn’t want to go back to that either.
And there wasn’t a place for him anymore.At his own urging, they had found another bassist.What was Dante supposed to be, Ellery’s partner?The person holding her purse at runway events and keeping her bed warm while she was off playing their music?
The cons kept adding up.
Casper:Think about it.What do you really want and can you give her what she needs?
Dante slippedthe phone into his pocket and left it on vibrate.He couldn’t deal with his brother’s intelligence today.
The front door opened and Logan stepped out, still as polished and shiny as a brand-new quarter.Revulsion and dislike warred for space beneath Dante’s skin.
Logan tapped repeatedly on his phone but did not make eye contact with him.Fine.He could ignore the asshole too.
“You have an opinion, Baker?”
At first, he wasn’t sure Logan was addressing him, despite him using his name.Mostly because Logan didn’t break his gaze from his phone.
“I think you’re an asshole, Logan.”
“Most people do.”The unmistakable sound of a text flying through cyberspace rang from his phone.“It doesn’t mean I’m not right.”
Dante shook his head, the rage curdling his stomach.“You’re using her.You’re using all of them, for your own purposes.For money.”
Logan scoffed.“Money is not the enemy.Without money, you can’t buy food, water, pay for your phone plan, find a house.Hell, especially not in LA.I’m not asking anything of them that they’re not willingly agreeing to do.”Logan leveled a cool gaze at him.“Are you pretending your dislike of me is about me wanting to make money?You took it before.”
“That was different.”
“Why?Because it was about Ellery?Or because it was about ‘the music’?”Logan rolled his eyes as he added air quotes.“You think I don’t know about the two of you?”
Dante’s blood ran cold.They had been so careful those months they had been together, and even though a few photos had leaked, they had been grainy and after he’d already left the band.It had been so long ago he’d forgotten to fear the fallout.“What do you mean?”
Logan tapped on his phone screen, then brandished a series of photos.Dante’s heart sank.He and Ellery, kissing on the fire escape behind his old apartment.Holding hands backstage.Locked in an embrace in an alley behind a restaurant in Venice Beach.
Logan arched an eyebrow and removed the photos from his view.“I’m not an idiot.I knew you two were seeing each other.I knew you were violating your contracts.How do you think those leaked photos disappeared?I made it happen.”
