I get off the phone and sit blindly at the desk, staring at the cream-colored wallpaper.
How did this happen? How did we get here? Jesus Christ, the guys were right. They said Iris wouldn’t be around forever and that she would eventually leave me. I just didn’t think that it would happen this way.
What am I going to do?
There’s nothing I can do.
Reaching for my phone, I pull up her number, fully intending to demand answers. Only my finger hovers over her number.
I can’t.
Instead, I hit the number below hers. It rings a few times before he answers.
“What’s up, buddy? It’s been a while,” Brantley says when he answers.
“I fucking hate people,” I mutter without thinking about it.
“Tell me something I don’t know,” he says with humor in his voice.
“I need you to remind me why I did this again. I need you to tell me why I agreed to change. Because as far as I’m concerned, that’s when everything went to hell. Iris and I were good, we were solid when we worked in Boston. It’s when we left that everything went to shit.”
“Because you’re a good brother,” he says.
In true Brantley fashion, he pulls me into a conversation. He asks me where I am today and tells me about his girl Chloe. For a while he makes me forget about Iris and all the problems that are currently plaguing me.
“Very true. Enough about me, though. What’s going on with you?” he says after a while.
“I’m living the dream, man. I’m in Vegas overseeing the renovations of our hotel out here,” I tell him in a bored tone.
“That’s not what I mean, and you know it.”
Sighing, I drop my head as I shut my eyes.
I don’t know what to tell him. Or hell, how much to tell him.
“Come on, man, spit it out,” he urges.
This is why he is my best friend outside of Iris. He knows when I’m withholding something. I called him for a reason, and until I tell him, he won’t let me off.
“Iris.”
“What about her?” he asks hesitantly.
“I don’t know, man, something is going on with her,” I hedge.
“What do you mean?”
“She went on a date,” I tell him quietly.
“I’m sorry, what did you just say?”
“Don’t make me repeat it,” I beg him.
“And it wasn’t with you?”
“No,” I say, swallowing hard.
I wait for him to tell me he told me so. That he and the guys have been warning me that this would happen. How they’ve told me to make a move because a woman like her will only wait for so long before she walks away, but instead of claiming her, I’ve let fear hold me hostage.
