“And you’re meant to be with Chris?”
Marc’s eyes shifted behind Viktor. As expected, no one was there. “If I don’t try, I won’t ever know,” he said, locking their gazes.
Viktor looked away and licked his bottom lip, a faint smile painted on his face as he let out a long sigh. “Are you happy?” he asked.
Marc stared back at him, unsure of how to answer, but then something Chris had told him once popped into his head. “Happiness is a false illusion, but I’m fighting to make my dreams come true.”
Viktor nodded, accepting his defeat as, without saying another word, Marc turned around and walked off.
He would always hold a place in his heart for Viktor. There was no doubt about that. Almost everything he knew about being an adult—sex, love, and hate—he had learned with him. But their ways had differed, going in opposite directions, and the bassist wasn’t even bothered by it. His future belonged beside someone else now.
Drenched because he hadn’t brought an umbrella with him, he waited under a bus shelter for his Uber. He was enjoying the melody the rain was creating and the smell of wet grass flooding the atmosphere when his phone vibrated. Shoving his hand into his pocket, he took the device out.Sophia, he read his sister’s name on the screen.
“Hey, everything okay?” Marc asked, worried that something might be wrong with the baby.
“Huh? Yeah. Why would you ask that?”
“Because it’s weird that you’re calling me knowing I’m out.” He tightened the neck of his parka when the wind blew.
“Are you still with Viktor?”
“No… Why?”
“Oh, good, good. Did Chris see you then?”
“I-I… no. Chris isn’t here. What are you talking about?”
“He arrived an hour ago. Said something about wanting to give you a surprise, so I gave him the gallery address. He should be there already.”
Realization punched him in the face. He hadn’t imagined Chris before. He had been there.
“Fuck!”
“What?”
“I might have seen him… shit. Okay, talk to you later.”
“Marc, wait! What happened?”
“Gotta go!”
Hanging up, an ache spiraled through him as he dialed Chris’s number. One ringing tone. Two. Three. He declined the call.
Fuck.
25. Surrender
November17th,2017
Hamburg, Germany
Enraged. crushed. Betrayed. At this moment, it was all the same.
Chris slammed the door of his hotel room shut and threw his backpack on the desk. He had reorganized his entire agenda for the weekend just so he could come to Hamburg to tell Marc he wanted to be more than a fling. He had made his clients readjust to his personal needs. How unprofessional was that? And since he didn’t like the idea of making people wait to get a tattoo they had booked months in advance, he would have to work for two weeks without a break, too.
For what? For fucking nothing.
Well, yeah, to get his balls twisted.
