“He’s coming over now?”
“Yep, should be here any minute.”
Jay’s body began to shake, a lump growing in his throat.Fucking date night.“Listen...”
“You okay?”
“I...” He pressed his fingers against the corner of his eyes, strong enough to hurt.
“Hold on. Ant is at the door.”
Jay moved the phone away because the shaking was getting worse. He was officially losing his shit, but he refused to make a scene and ruin Ethan and Anthony’s evening.
He could faintly hear Ethan saying, “I’m on the phone with Jay. Ant says hi. He brought me flowers.”
Jay moved the phone closer. “Yeah, that’s cool. Listen, you two have fun. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
“Sure. Have a good evening.”
Jay hung up and slammed his phone on the couch. He put his head in his palms and tried to breathe. That had been one of the worst things about prison—you could never take a proper breath. But he wasn’t in prison now, and he needed to focus on that.
His phone vibrated with an incoming message. He hurried to pick it up, hoping it would be Ethan asking him to come over. Seeing Chris’s name on the screen raised an unexpected fire in Jay’s chest. The last person he wanted to talk to was the one who had sent him to hell.
He reluctantly opened the message.“Can we meet?”
He texted back,“Not in the mood.”
Chris wrote,“Please. It’s important.”
Jay took hold of his anger because he had promised Ethan and himself that he and Chris were okay. Besides, it wasn’t like Chris to write this kind of message.
They agreed to meet at Henry’s.
3
JAY
When he got to the bar, Chris was already waiting outside, leaning against his car. It was a Monday evening, so Chris must have come straight from work based on his nice suit. He moved away from the car when he spotted Jay, somehow managing to look both tired and too damn pretty.
“Hi,” Chris said.
Jay stopped in front of him, an unexpected rotten feeling crawling in his guts. There wouldn’t have been a Nasty Ben if there wasn’t a Chris Roberts.
Chris must have sensed the brewing storm. He tensed and took a step back, which hit Jay like a slap in the face. Common sense peeked through the fumes of his rage before he could do anything stupid. He reminded himself to be grateful for at least having someone to hang out with on this shitty evening.
“Thanks for meeting me.”
Chris arched an eyebrow. “I asked you to meetme.”
“Hmm, yeah. That’s what I meant.”
They walked inside and were greeted by good-oldRage Against the Machine. Jay said hello to Henry and ordered two beers, a Pilsner for himself and a Guinness for Chris. They took their drinks to one of the booths, keeping far away from the speakers. The place smelled smoky, although no one smoked.
“You had a bad day?” Chris asked carefully.
Jay drank his beer. Maybe he should have gotten something stronger. By now, beer might as well have been milk. “Why are you asking?”
Chris shrugged. “You look like you had a bad day.”
