Page 43 of Sapphire Spring

“Yes. I’m bisexual.”

Naser seemed startled by the direct answer. He noddedslowly, his tongue making a lump under his upper lip. As if this whole thingwould have been easier for him if Mason had deflected or lied, and now he washaving to reassess.

“So Fareena wasn’t just busting my balls. Your sister reallyneeds money, doesn’t she?”

Naser smoothed invisible lint off the thighs of his slacks.“I knew you were bisexual,” he muttered.

“Then why did you ask?”

“I don’t know, maybe you were gay and closeted. ButFareena’s Fareena. She’s not going to waste time on a guy that doesn’t have a genuineattraction to her.”

“SoI repeat, why did you—”

“Do your buddies know?” Naser was staring at him, eyesblazing with anger.

The question knocked Mason back in his chair an inch. “Tim’sbeen dead five years.”

Naser looked to the carpet. “I’m sorry.”

“You don’t need to be. He was terrible to you. The CoachHarris email was all his idea.”

Naser drew a deep breath. “Thanks for letting me off thehook, I guess. How did he pass away?”

“Pills. He always said they were for a sports injury fromUSC, but he warmed the bench the whole time, so that story never made sense. Ithink he really liked pills. We’re not sure if it was deliberate or if heovershot the mark. There wasn’t a note, but his life wasn’t in a great place.”

Remembering those last few visits with Tim now that he wastrying to get sober was more painful than he’d anticipated. Back then, Masonhad thought he’d had hisshittogether, and bycomparison to his old friend, who’d dropped out of college and was working odd handymanjobs for his uncle’s contracting company, it had certainly seemed that way. Heand Chadwick had even talked about hauling Tim into a rehab—over beers.

Naser nodded, and a silence fell. A silence that, likeeverything else between them, seemed to bend the laws of time.

“And Chadwick Brody?” Naser’s voice was drawstring tight,but his gaze was steady and penetrating, full of the unspoken recognition thatChadwick had always been the worst out of the three.

“He’s still around.”

Naser was staring at him, waiting for him to say somethingfurther. Sensing, it seemed, that Mason’s answer hadn’t been complete orentirely truthful. But maybe expressing hesitation or shame around the topic ofChadwick was what Naser needed to see.

“And no, he doesn’t know that I’m bi. And yes, if you wereto walk out of here right now and share this information with the world, youcould really screw up my already screwed-up life. Especially with the man downthe hall.”

“I’d never do that.”

“I wouldn’t blame you if you did.”

For a second, Mason thought the guy might soften toward him.

“I know what it feels like to be outed before you’re ready,”Naser said. “I’d never inflict that on someone else.”

“We didn’toutyou. Everything we did was wrong,but it wasn’t like we knew for sure that you were gay.”

“Yes, you did. You knew every time I looked at you. That’swhy you did it.”

Was Naser admitting to having been as hot for Mason as Masonhad been for him?

Maybe so, because Naser looked away before Mason did.

Mason picked up the contract. He did some quick math in hishead, quick enough that he couldn’t think too long and hard about theconsequences of what he was about to do. He wrote down a figure, followed by aschedule, then he flipped to the signature page and signed his name. PariKazemi, he saw, had yet to add her own.

When he handed the contract back to Naser, the guy readMason’s additions and went stone still.

“A lump sum payment of one hundred grand on signing?” Nasersounded winded. Mason nodded. “You don’t have to buy my silence, Mason.”

---