Page 97 of Strut

Alec stormed back into the lounge and I followed, at a loss how to help and not wanting to set him off by saying the wrong thing... again. “Alec I—”

His phone rang and he grabbed it, ignoring me. It was Kip on the other end, but the conversation was short, Alec hanging up after a snappish, “I’ve no fucking idea what I want to do. I’ll call you back.”

I gave a slow blink, frozen in place, watching the man I loved wall himself off and fall apart and not having a clue what the fuck to do about it.

Before I could try with Alec again, his phone rang again and this time it was Tui. Word was spreading. But as I listened to Alec talk, fuck, if my heart didn’t break at the relief in his voice and how I wished it could’ve been for me. But without a glance my way, Alec disappeared into the bedroom and shut the door, and all I could hear was his broken voice as he offloaded to his best friend... and not to me.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

It’s not about me.It’s not about me. I tried to recall the advice Rhys had handed out, but there was nothing to cover this. My phone rang on the couch and Kip’s pink dragon profile pic flashed on the screen. I grabbed it and headed for the kitchen, out of earshot.

“Is he okay?” Kip asked worriedly.

“No. Next question.”

“Fuck.” He sighed. “I wasn’t expecting those photos, Hunter. Darcy’s name has been cropping up time and again in the threads and I guess he wanted to strike back.”

“I don’t give a fuck about him.” I glanced over my shoulder at the closed bedroom door and ignored the sting in my heart. “Alec’s melting down and I don’t know what the hell to do about it.”

There was silence at the end of the line. “Well, fuck, that’s hardly my forte. You need Rhys, my man.”

Damn right I did. “Where is he?”

“Meeting with fabric suppliers. He’ll be back after lunch. I’ll tell him to call.”

My head dropped back and I groaned. “I can’t wait. Jesus, Kip, you have to give me something. I’m drowning here.”

He sighed and went quiet for a few seconds. “You realise you’re asking the guy, who hasn’t had a relationship since he was eighteen to give the only man I know who could beat me at my man-whoring ways relationship advice? Holy hell. It’s like the blind leading the blind, you dipshit.”

He wasn’t wrong and so I said nothing, just stared out the window at the crisp fall day.

At length Kip gave a pained groan and I knew I had him. “Goddammit, Hunter.”

I almost grinned.

“All I can say is love the man,” Kip grumbled. “I mean, that’s what you two supposedly have, right? Love? From what I saw yesterday, the two of you looked an apple pie away from a white picket fence, as completely shocking and unbelievable as that is to me.”

“Wow. Thanks for the confidence.”

Kip snorted. “You’re welcome. I just mean that you love Alec, and he loves you. Maybe he just needs reminding of that. But for fuck’s sake, don’t let him push you away.” Kip fell silent for a few seconds too long. A few seconds that left me wondering. “There’s respecting his space, Hunter, and then there’s being a fucking idiot. Avoid that second one, yeah? That’s all I’ve got.”

My next breath reached the bottom of my lungs for the first time in a while and a smile stole over my lips. “You know, that wasn’t half bad for a two-bit man-whore. Thanks.”

Kip snorted. “Yeah, well, don’t come crying when it all blows up in your face. And moving right along, I have an idea about those bloody photos that I want you to run by Alec since he’s apparently not ready to talk to me.”

I winced. “Yeah, sorry about that. All I can say is I’ll do my best. You might need to give me an hour or so.”

“No problem. And remind him the rest of the campaign is going great. There’s a ton of buzz happening and the hashtags are being picked up like crazy. But don’t let Alec spend too much time following the photo rabbit hole. They’re blowing up in a big way. How the fuck does this old fart have so many damn followers?”

“Hans was a seventies and eighties icon,” I answered. “He shot all the first supermodels, plus he was Darcy’s mentor. He has mad respect, unfortunately.”

Kip sighed and pondered that. “Do you think he knows the truth about fuckface?”

I snorted. “Who knows? Hans is clean, rumour-wise, so maybe he thinks he’s on the side of right. Fucked if I know.”

“Okay, well here’s my wicked plan.”

I listened as Kip outlined his crazy idea, although it really wasn’t so crazy at all. In fact, it made sense in a weird way, although I wasn’t sure Alec would see it that way. But when the call was done, I felt a tiny bit more hopeful. I checked the time.Shit.I shot to my feet. I’d be lucky to make my morning meeting and I tried to decide if I cared about that. Nope. Not a scrap. There was no way I was leaving Alec in the middle of all this. I put the call in, and although the editorial team weren’t happy, they pushed it back another day.

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