Page 27 of Sapphire Storm

“Like like? Or like like like?”

Roman smiled and huffed with laughter. “Stop it. You knowwhat I mean. And it’s worse than not being able to get it up. It’s, like, totalsystem shutdown. I just can’t. And everyone thinks I’m this big player becauseof the way I look, but I’m not even on the apps or anything.”

Ethan raised his eyebrows and set his fork down with a dramaticclank. “Oh, really, BeachBoy24?”

Roman spread his hands in a gesture of surrender. “That wasan exception, and I killed him as soon as I got the meeting with you.”

“Good. I wouldn’t want him to insult any more men who can’tspend five hours a day at the gym. Who was that in Beach Boy’s pictures, by theway?”

“Some magazine model. I tried not to pick anyone too famous.I do a lot of Photoshop on my own posts, so I know how to make stuff look likeit’s not a scan.”

“I see,” Ethan grumbled.

“Don’t worry. BeachBoy24 has been officially drowned.”

It wasn’t an apology, but it was close.

“Do you forgive me?” Roman asked.

The abruptness of the question startled Ethan silent. The vulnerabilityin the tone was so total, so pure, Ethan could only gaze into it for what feltlike several minutes but was probably only a few dazed seconds. He was temptedto dismiss it as a mood swing in someone young and mercurial. But it seemedlike something more, deeper. A man who was hurting and searching for connectionand family in all the wrong ways.

“Do you forgiveme?” Ethan was surprised by thespeed and force of his response.

Roman seemed surprised too.

They’d returned to the most sensitive subject between them,and there was no anger in his expression. After a single night that wasn’t overyet, Ethan had already learned well what anger looked like in Roman Walker’seyes.

“I asked first,” Roman said.

“I forgave you before you left the hotel.”

Roman nodded, seeming relieved, and cut off another bite ofveal.

“And me?” Ethan asked.

“You were just doing your job,” he answered, then quicklytook the bite he’d prepared. “I mean…”

He fell silent, and Ethan knew if he tried to press, the guymight lock down entirely. It was clear the words he was planning to say nextwere a struggle. He was hanging his head and playing with his food.

“When we were chatting. Before. You know, when Iwas…BeachBoy24 or Cody or whatever, I could already tell you weren’t who Ithought you were going to be. I mean, when I told you things about my life, youactually responded. Like you were really listening. Like you were a goodperson.”

Ethan bit back his urge to point out the details he’d beenresponding to had been completely fabricated. At this point, that went withoutsaying. Instead, he nodded and said, “When did your mom pass?”

“Six months ago.”

“Wow. Recent.”

“I guess.”

Half a year out from the death of the most important personin his life and Roman Walker wanted to be done with bad feelings about it. Nota good sign. In Ethan’s experience, when you ran from grief, you ended uprunning on grief.

Roman nodded and rubbed his hands over his face. For asecond, Ethan thought the guy might cry, but when he lifted his head from hispalms, his face was blank. “What am I going to do about Rachel?”

Yep, Ethan thought,running from grief on powerfullegs. “What’s the worst-case scenario if you tell her?”

“Uh, hell on earth basically. I lose my home, my income. Ihave to go back to LA, find a new job. Diana’s spending all this money on mypromotions. That’ll be over. I’m just starting to get ad revenue, but herpeople manage all the platforms for me, so who knows what they’ll do. Maybethey’ll lock me out of my accounts if she’s mad enough.”

“Could you get a job at Apex again?”

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