“But this is great,” he says, “you need to tell her.”
I sigh, letting my shoulders drop. “I don’t think she wants to hear from me; besides, she might have already moved on. I overheard Slim tell the others that she got dropped off late one night by some guy in a town car; and she was all dressed up even though she told him she was staying at a friend’s house.”
Donovan laughs, but there’s nothing funny about the image in my mind of her with some other guy.
“Seriously, the pair of you need to stop listening in on other people’s conversations and start fucking talking.”
“What?” I ask.
“She overheard that you had a threesome with some girls, she felt hurt and angry so went to try and get over you the same way, but she couldn’t do it either.”
The pain in my chest that’s been there since overhearing Slim talk to the others about that night eases slightly.
“What do you mean? How do you know that?”
“I was literally on the phone with her last night when you called. She told me about it, she met a guy but couldn’t go through with it and his driver ended up taking her back to Slim’s place.”
“Elizabeth hasn’t been with anyone else? She hasn’t moved on?”
He grabs my shoulders. “No! She loves you; she misses you. The only reason she’s not with you is because she thinks that you can’t be accepting of gay people. Which, after our conversation and you apologizing, I’m hoping isn’t the case.”
“No, of course not, wait, she still loves me?”
Hope surges inside me, there’s a chance I haven’t lost her.
“Yes, you need to tell her that you and I are good, tell her what you told me, do that whole ‘fuck the club’ speech, it will be all romantic and shit, she’ll love it. You can get her back.”
I’m speechless… my brain is running a million miles a minute. But I haven’t lost her, it’s not over. I know I don’t deserve her, but I have to try…
“Not yet,” I say, “I need to fix this with the club first, prove to her that I’m not who she thinks I am. Then I can try and get her back.”
I’m nodding at Donovan, and he grins.
“Okay,” he says, standing and pulling me into a hug this time.
Elizabeth
“Can you hand me that screwdriver, please?” I ask, nodding to the one by Slim’s feet.
“This place looks great, Beth. You really didn’t have to do all of this,” he says, looking around his spare room.
When I moved in it was basically a plain white cube, but now three of the walls are painted a neutral tone with one of the walls the same green as the dining room; mainly because we had some paint leftover, but it also looks great in the space. I’ve bought curtains that have the same green in the pattern and a couple of bedspreads that compliment it too. Once weget this bed put together and the wardrobe built, this place will be ready for future guests.
I shrug. “Well you didn’t have to let me stay here, but you are, and I appreciate it.”
It’s funny, before all of this, he was the person I spoke to the least; Tank was always chatty and kind, Pretty Boy was mainly flirtatious, but Slim barely said a word to me. He’s still not much of a talker, but he feels more like an older brother now. Our evenings have been spent watching films, sitting on the couch I helped him to buy. He doesn’t seem to mind dropping me off at work and picking me up, sometimes even eating at the diner to keep me company. It’s been nice to have a friend.
“You can stay as long as you want,” he says.
“Thanks, but I’m going to start looking at other places this week. Don’t get me wrong, living with you is great, but I feel like it’s going to be harder for me to move on from Diablo when I can still hear stuff that he’s… you know… up to.”
“What do you mean?” he asks, sitting on the floor near me and leaning back against the wall.
I take a deep breath and let it out with a sigh.
“I know it was wrong to eavesdrop, but the other day I overheard you and Pretty Boy talking, and well… hearing that Diablo was off having a threesome at another club, it put me in a bad headspace, and it made me do something I didn’t really want to do.”
“Threesome? Diablo?”
