"This was a mistake," he grumbles, getting up.
I try and do the same and even manage to succeed. Mostly. Just a slight wobble on my feet, nothing major. He's looking around for something, probably his phone and wallet.
"Don't go," I plead.
"Why not?" He stops and stares me right in the eye. It's like a punch in the gut, familiar but distant, heated but cold, all at the same time.
"Because I…" I huff out a breath, a dull throb forming behind my left eye again. "Because I miss you, Beau. I miss you and me. Being best friends. I miss what we had."
He abandons his search and steps over to me until we're close, like we're waiting for the snap count. "I miss you, too, Rein. But things have happened."
What things? What on earth is he talking about? Why did he shut me out of his life without so much as a word of an explanation?
As tempted as I am to ask them, I keep the questions buried. It's not worth risking getting into a fight over. As stupid as it sounds, I just want him to stay and be around for a while longer.
"I know," I say defeatedly, the weight of our broken relationship sinking into my chest.
"I should go."
"No. Stay."
He frowns, and I'd bet all the money I have that the next word out of his mouth is going to bewhy. So to avoid the path that would lead us down, I do the only thing my drunken brain can think of to keep him here.
I stumble closer, cup his surprised face between my hands, and I kiss him.
On the lips.
Hard.
4
Beau
I watch Rein snoring away, his mouth relaxed and slightly open, completely oblivious to the world.
The details of how we ended up in the honeymoon suite are a little hazy. I remember someone from the resort coming to fetch us from the karaoke booth and escorting us here. Rein was even more drunk than me, so I made sure he had a glass of water before helping him get into the bed safely.
Can't explain how he ended up naked, though. Maybe he sleep-undresses. Is that a thing? I lifted the sheets up his body when I got up a few minutes ago so I wasn't some creep perving on his passed out, naked, best friend, but he keeps kicking them down, revealing not only a muscled torso, but also, a magnificent cock. A magnificent cock that's magnificently hard.
Ugh.
I ball my hands into fists and push to my feet. I can't keep staring at him. My mind is a mess with memories, emotions, everything. And my head is throbbing with the mother of all hangovers, too.
As if bumping into him—well, technically, him bumping into me—wasn't a big enough shock, he then ends the night by planting an open-mouth kiss on my lips.
Why did he do that?
I wish I could say I pushed him off because that would've been the right thing to do. But I didn't. Years of bottled-up longing won out, and I surrendered, letting his tequila-coated tongue do what it wanted inside my mouth for what felt like minutes but was likely only a few seconds before my brain finally jolted me into reality, reminding me why I cut off contact with Rein in the first place.
A groggy, end-of-life groan fills the room. I turn around to find Rein shielding his eyes from the incoming morning light.
"Have I died and gone to hell?" he rasps.
"I won't take that personally," I answer, closing the curtains we were too wasted to draw last night. "Better?"
He nods as a cool darkness settles over the room. "Um, why am I naked?"
"Good question." I point to myself and the underwear I managed to keep on.
