Page 67 of Sapphire Spring

“Oh, I know they’ll help. But the way everybody talks aboutit, it’s slow. One day at a time. Basically, you start acting like the personyou want to be, little by little, and your thoughts and feelings follow.”

“Sounds like cognitive behavioral therapy.”

Mason nodded. “I wouldn’t know. I mean, along the way youtalk about the realshit, the dark shit, with peopleyou can trust. People who feel the things you do. But they keep saying it likethis.” He paused his work on the grill, as if he was summoning his next wordswith the raised spatula. “I can’tthinkmy way into right actions, butI canactmy way into right thinking.” He shrugged. “It feels phony atfirst, but it’s like you turn yourself into the kind of person you can feelgood about at the end of the day. You start with not taking the drink no matterwhat. Then, when the good feeling spreads, you start doing the opposite of whatyou used to do in other areas too. Contrary action, they call it.”

“Interesting.” Naser sipped his drink.

“Bringing you here, that was about being the person I wantto be.”

“And everything we did once I got here?”

“Everythingwe did once you got here.” Mason hookedthe waistband of Naser’s shorts with one finger, drew him close, and curved hisnon-grilling arm around Naser’s shoulders. Save for Mason’s foot teasing on thesofa, they’d been nervously distant since he got home. Now, wilting into theman’s bulk felt like a delicious return to his natural state. A natural state afew hours old.

“Spend the night.” When Naser hesitated, Mason spoke again.“Too soon?”

Naser shook his head before realizing Mason couldn’t see it.“Not too soon.”

“But?”

“There’s something I need to tell you first.”

Only once the words were out of his mouth did he realizethere were really two somethings, but the second was pounding against the otherside of a door he’d prefer to keep locked. It was less immediate, and in theend, it wasn’t about Mason. If whatever this was kept going, if one nightbecame several, maybe he’d unlock that door. But not now.

“Let me guess. You snore?” Mason asked.

“No, amazingly. It runs in the family, but with me, itskipped a generation.”

“You’re married to a nice guy from West Hollywood?”

“Very much not so. Never even had areallyseriousboyfriend.”

“Phew, then.Sowhat’s thisterrible thing you’ve got to tell me?”

“SoFriday night, you left your phonewith me at the hotel. And you gave me the code because you wanted me to callyou an Uber, and then Fareena came and whisked you off Fareena-style.”

“Immediately and on her own schedule, you mean.”

“Correct. And there I was, with your phone.”

“Which you brought back.”

“Yes, but…”

“But?Ooo, this isgetting good.”

“I kind of went through it a little first.”

Mason seemed nonplussed. When it came to Naser, maybe hethought he didn’t have many secrets left. “A little, huh?”

“You see, I was… Well, I was going to try to get you backfor the Coach Harris email. Maybe send a…” Just the thought of Chadwick’s namebrought him dangerously close to the second thing he wasn’t ready to discuss.“You know, embarrass you with a text or an email pretending to be you. But I couldn’t.”

“Crafty. What changed your mind?”

“Oh, I don’t know.” He sighed.

“Yeah, I think you do.”

Naser turned into their half embrace, forcing the guy to sethis spatula down to one side of the grill and stare down at him. “I saw textsfrom your dad.”

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