Page 126 of Hyde and Seek

“Hey, my life was boring a few months ago. You know me, half-robot and all,” I teased.

“I need my own badass. Is Gage available? No, Jet. No, who’s the dude with the dreads? He gave me a chin lift earlier, which I took to mean he was declaring his undying love and inviting me to spend years getting lost in his eyes. Goodness, he’s gorgeous!”

“That’s Kase. I’ll introduce you.”

“Maybe later. Right now I’m thirsty, and wow, talk about coincidence; Gage and Jet are over there. I’ll just fangirl squeal in my head.” She lowered her voice into her version of a whisper. “If I pass out, promise to make one of them give me mouth-to-mouth.”

“I promise,” I vowed, trying to keep a straight face.

The night progressed with everyone talking, laughing, and drinking together like they’d all been friends for years. Nat and Harlow bonded over fashion and talked at speeds that only they seemed able to understand. My dad, my man, and my boys got into an in depth discussion about cars and bikes.

The only dark cloud in my birthday brightness was Rhys’ date.

At first I thought she was keeping to herself because she was shy. After trying to talk to her, though, it became obvious she was just a bitch.

A big one.

I liked Rhys a lot. We were still close and he was genuinely happy for Jake and me because that was the kind of guy he was.

I didn’t have the details, but I knew there was something dark he’d been through. The longer I’d been around him, the more I saw the shadows that lurked in his blue eyes and the pain he hid behind a dimpled smile.

He definitely deserved better.

“Happy birthday, darlin’,” he said with a hug.

“Thanks. How’re things going?” I glanced meaningfully towards… whatever her name was. Something fussy and she’d spelled it out. I was honestly expecting a Batman symbol to be in the middle of it.

“She pissed Damon and Tito off right before we were leaving. Went to grab my coat from my office, was gone all of two minutes. She said something, I have no fuckin’ clue what, but it pissed them right the fuck off.”

“To upset them it’d have to have been awful.”

Damon was six foot five, two hundred and fifty pounds of dark chocolate muscle. He was also one of the sweetest people I’d ever met. His boyfriend, Tito, was a DJ that worked at both Rye and Voodoo.

Damon grew up in a rough area. He’d known he was gay his whole life and had a rough go of it. As in, he barely made it to adulthood.

Tito hid the fact he was gay and ended up hating himself and those around him. He started injecting, smoking, popping, and chugging anything he could to get through the day. His addiction was so bad he’d started selling himself to anyone, including men. In a moment of lucidity, he realized he was doing the very thing he’d been afraid to do. Only now, he was doing it in order to almost kill himself with drugs. He got himself clean and eventually hooked up with Damon.

After all they’d been through, they were both thick-skinned. No one who made it through all of that would bother to sweat the small stuff.

“Yeah. As payback, Damon made sure to tell her that I had feelings for you. Deep ones. She started bitching in the car right away, demanding we skip your party. Like I take orders.” He shook his head slightly, an amused smile pulling at his lips.

“What’d you say?”

“I offered to drop her home. Volunteered to get her a taxi. I may have even said that one of the other guys might be willing to give her a ride, in whatever way she might want one. And yet she’s still here. Glaring. Yeah, ‘cause that’s gonna stop me from having fun.”

“Did you tell her your feelings aren’t like that?”

“Nope. As soon as Jake pulled his head out of his ass, it was clear he’s the one for you. He’s like a brother to me, so I was fuckin’ thrilled he found a good woman to give him what he needs. Never have I heard him laugh so much, or seen him smile so easy. Because of that, my feelings for you might not be romantic, but they’re still to the bone deep, darlin’.”

“Oh, Rhys,” I whispered, hugging him as I tried not to cry.

Hmm. Harlow’s single. Oh, so is Melanie. No, wait, maybe Lily?

“I better let you go before Jake throws a beer bottle at me. He might’ve won, but he still doesn’t look too happy.”

I pulled away and laughed up at him. “So you know, there’s a blond over there—”

“Lily?”

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