Page 23 of Sage

Did I ever love Alana?

The reflection in the mirror took on a new shape and without even thinking, Hans’ fist met the glass, shattering it into the tiniest of shards all over the bedroom floor. He shook his hand as he returned to his current reality, carefully removing the shards of glass that were sticking out of his knuckles.

Fuck.

Blood slowly trickled down his hand and started to drip onto the floor. He wandered into the bathroom so he could wash his hand and find some gauze to wrap it with.

Get it together man, now isn’t the time to need a grippy sock vacation.He took a deep breath and stared at himself in the mirror, his reflection returning to normalas he wound the gauze around his hand to stop the bleeding.

Bzz. Bzz.

Hans reached into his pocket with his uninjured hand and pulled out his phone.

Bzz.

Hans bit his lip as soon as he saw the name on the caller ID.

Charles.

“Hello?” Hans’ voice came out hoarse.

“Hans, it’s Charles. We need to talk.” Charles was being mysterious. Was he about to share his experience over at Marco’s with Hans? “Meet me at The Shake Shack in twenty minutes,” Charles demanded aggressively.

Chapter Sixteen

The Shake Shack

As Hans pulled up to The Shake Shack, Charles was already there, waiting for him outside with a smug look drawn over his face. Hans took a moment to gather his composure as he parked and asked his guardian angel, or whoever had been looking out for him, to help him not flip his shit if Charles was to say the wrong thing.

“Hey man,” Charles greeted Hans. The men shook hands before going inside and taking their seats.

Hans sat across from Charles, quietly examining his energy and analyzing the overall situation that he had suddenly found himself in.

“Hans!” Delilah stopped what she was doing and hurried over to the table once she realized he was there. “Whatever you want, it’s on the house today, doll. Your friend, too.”

Charles started to thank her when Hans cut in, “You know that isn’t necessary.” He could feel the heat radiating off of his skin from Charles’ glare, that man will accept any handouts without even stopping to think about it.

“Well, too bad.” Delilah smiled again. “Order anything you want.”

She left them with a couple of menus and scurried off to the back.

“Geesh, man.” Charles picked at his teeth with his nail. “You can get literally any woman regardless of age, huh?”

Hans rolled his eyes. “Delilah and I go way back. She’s known both of us since we were boys-” Charles cut him off.

“And yet, you’re the one she acknowledged…not me.” He was the same Charles that Hans had grown up with, the Charles that would get jealous any time someone would give anyone else attention.

“Let’s get to why we are here.” Hans didn’t want to play games today, he wasn’t in the mood.

Charles leaned back in his seat and rubbed his hand over his mouth and mustache. “I got a tip from one of Marco’s neighbors that there were people at his house. So this morning, on my little Sunday drive, I decided that I should stop by. You know what it’s like to get a gut feeling and follow it when you’re off duty.”

Hans squinted to look at him, unable to contain himself for where this story Charles had cooked up was going.

“There was a car,” Charles lowered his voice, “in the driveway.”

Hans leaned in closer. “Do you know who the car belonged to? Maybe family?”

Charles shook his head. “Nope. I’m having the license plate run, it was a bitch getting anyone to do it for me.” Hans chuckled, knowing that he wouldn’t have had any issue getting anyone to do any work for him. “The bastards are probably going to take their sweet time and make me wait all day.”

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