Page 45 of Burning Up

“You aren’t dying either. Sit down.” He gestured toward the kitchen table.

Bryce sat and dropped his aching head into his hands. At least his stomach was steadier than it had been when he’d woken earlier.

“I’m going to make some coffee and toast, and you’re going to tell me why a man who is the model of responsibility called into work with a half hour notice.”

Bryce laid his head on the table. “I fucked everything up.”

“Oh shit. It’s Toby and Matt, isn’t it?”

“I told them… God, I can’t talk about it.”

“What did you do?”

Bryce groaned. “Almost got us caught. Could have fucked all of us over.”

“But you didn’t?” Mason asked.

Bryce explained about the text he sent WT and then about telling Matt and Toby it was over.

“They didn’t take it well?”

That was too much of an understatement to contemplate. “No.”

“Bryce, there’s something you’re not telling me.”

Overly perceptive bastard. Bryce shook his head, then regretted it. How much had he drunk anyway? “I’m done talking. Now go away.”

Mason ignored him. He set coffee and toast in front of Bryce and then joined him at the table, holding his own mug of coffee. For several seemingly interminable moments, they sat in silence. Bryce broke first. “Fine. I had to make sure they would take me seriously, so I told them that we’d spent enough time fucking and I was over them.”

Mason stared at him. “What the fuck?”

Bryce shrugged.

“Bryce, you’ve got to fix this.”

“No fixing it. They hate me now.”

Mason took a sip of coffee as he studied Bryce. “You know working with them isn’t going to be any easier now.”

“That’s not the point.”

“Call them.”

Bryce was done. He stood up and leaned on the table. Mason scooted back, his expression showing concern and maybe a little fear. Bryce probably looked like a monster with hurt and anger filling him up until he couldn’t imagine being happy again. “I am not talking about this anymore. I will call Elizabeth and apologize in the morning. I’ll even take some extra shifts. It’s not like I’m going to have a social life or anything.”

“Bryce—”

“Not another fucking word,” he snarled.

Mason banged his mug down on the table and stood. “If you want to be miserable, that’s your choice, but do you have to make Toby and Matt miserable too?”

“I’d make them even more miserable if I stayed with them,” Bryce growled.

“Where the hell did you get an idea like that?”

“They’re too young to be trapped in a relationship that is so much work.”

Mason raised his brows. “Did you ask them how they felt about it?”

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