“What?”
“Do you mind if I sneak out and leave you alone for... let’s say ten minutes?”
“You gotta be fucking kidding me, dude. Really? I’m here just so you can get laid and not get bored between quickies?”
“I’ll be back right after that. I promise.” He patted Noah’s arm and walked toward her.
“That’s gonna be disappointing if it only takes you ten minutes!” Noah shouted.
Without looking back, Theo flipped him off over his shoulder.
Noah knew Theo was gonna ditch him at the end of the night to go to her house. That was the plan from the start, but this was not. Still, he didn’t take it as badly as he would have in the past. Even if the place was packed, he wasn’t afraid to be alone, which was like a free card for drunk extroverts to want to engage in a conversation with him.
Twenty minutes ticked away, but his dumbass of a friend didn’t return, so Noah finished a second beer and went to the bathroom. It was stupid how much that delicious fermented drink made him pee.
Once he was done, hands washed, Noah headed back out. But, of course, he had to bump intohim.
They’d gone out with the same group of people a couple more times since their last run-in, but this right now had to be some kind of sick joke. A cheap B movie with a writer that didn’t have anything better to do besides adding shit to keep things entertaining—which they were not.
“Of all the shitty places in this city, you had to walk into this one,” Kaj said.
“What can I say? I have a knack for finding trash.” Noah was so tired of his constant passive aggressiveness that the words just rolled off his tongue. Why couldn’t he ignore him and pretend they didn’t know each other?
“Slumming it tonight, Sørensen, or is this your usual haunt now? Just so I know if I have to cross this place off my list.”
There was a dude behind Kaj. At first, Noah thought he was coming in the same direction because he needed to take a leak or snort a line, but now he wasn’t so sure. The hallway was narrow,but there was still space to walk around them. Yet he stood there, seemingly uncomfortable.
“I thought you had a boyfriend,” Noah tossed, confirming his suspicions about this guy being some sort of toy for him when he bit his bottom lip and looked away.
“Not that it’s any of your business, but Mads and I have an open relationship,” Kaj retorted, his gaze raking over Noah in a way that made him feel exposed and angry all at once.
“I see. Still a slut.” Noah flashed him the most condescending smirk he could manage.
He didn’t care what rocked other peoples’ boats—polyamory, open relationships, monogamy, gangbangs, swingers clubs—he just wanted to irritate Kaj. And apparently, it worked.
“You think you’re funny?” His fists clenched at the sides of his already tense body. Although Noah had no idea what was really going on in his mind at the time, there was a strange glow in Kaj’s eyes, like desperation mixed with fear. But he could also be high on some shit. Who knew?
“I... I’m gonna go,” the dude behind him muttered, gesturing with his head in the direction they’d come from. “You solve whatever this is. We’ll talk another time.”
Kaj didn’t say anything or try to stop him. As the guy walked away, the lights in the dimly lit corridor flickered and the temperature lowered. The savagery of the music playing outside thudded through the walls, but in that moment, it was just them and the growing bitterness.
“I needed that. You just ruined... I needed that.” His mouth twitched. “Are you happy now?”
“It’s not like you’ll have a hard time finding another dick to suck.” Noah shrugged.
“Don’t go there,” Kaj warned.
But Noah was reckless tonight. Didn’t care whether he got hurt again, he wanted to draw some blood. So, he bit the bait.
“You’ve done so before, no?”
“You’re walking on areallythin rope right now, Sørensen. If I were you, I’d shut the hole in my face.”
“So, what? You get to do whatever the hell you want with no consequences?” Noah shot back. Under the apparent healed wounds, he’d been harboring a resentment so heavy that the terrible thoughts he had never dared to voice scalded his tongue.
Kaj had stolen a part of Noah when he made him fall in love, crippling and scarring his heart forever. All he wanted now was to hurt him as badly. To give him a taste of his own medicine.
Kaj’s nostrils flared, his composure cracking as he stepped closer, crowding him. “You think you know everything, don’t you? That it was all so black and white?”
