Page 18 of Art of Love
I’d just pulled up on the drive. Frowning, I glared at him and had a mind to continue driving, but I pushed the idea aside. I’d had a long night with a woman who thought I’d taken advantage of her, and I’d had a pretty shit meeting with my new boss, who just dropped a bomb on me about the dream job I thought I had.
I was tired.Exhausted. And I wanted to grab some sleep.
I didn’t want to go driving around aimlessly when I felt like this, and just because I absolutely didn’t want to speak to Collin.
He stood when I parked and brought his hands together. His face looked red and blotchy, and his clothes were ruffled.
I got out of my car and made my way toward him. Eyeing him dangerously, I stepped past him and continued up the steps, ignoring his ass.
“Hunter, please,” he begged, coming up to me as I opened the door.
I wanted to close it and close him out, shut him outside and out of my world, but he rushed past me, into the house.
“We need to talk. Bro, please, I’m sorry.”
“Bro?” I narrowed my eyes at him and shook my head. “Don’t fucking call me that. Ever. Bro is short for brother, and Jesus Christ, you totally lost every right to call me that yesterday, or whenever it was you started sticking your dick in my girlfriend. Ex-girlfriend.”
I really wished I could get the image out of my head. I really did. Collin was my oldest friend. We had other friends between us and friends in common, but we really were more like brothers. More than my own brother was to me.
“I’m sorry. I am.”
“Collin, stop. Just stop. We’re done. Save it. Save your sorrow for someone else. You’re sorry because I caught you and it brought us to this point, but if I hadn’t caught you, then you’d still continue to cheat. Behind my back.”
“Hunter, you’re right. I won’t say that you aren’t. There are no words, and I couldn’t tell you how sorry I am I hurt you. It just happened. I thought I ...”
“What?Fell for her?” He needed to stop, because everything he said was worse than the first thing.
I laughed when he nodded. This was ridiculous, but maybe it was true. I still hadn’t gotten a call from Emma. So maybe she fell for him too.
“You know what? Just leave and don’t come back. Don’t come here again expecting me to understand or forgive you, because it won’t happen. I can’t. You were together behind my back, and I literally want nothing to do with either of you. I can do better than this.”
Yesterday was a bad day, and I was shocked, but today was different. I needed to get my ass in gear to focus on whatever the hell it was John had in mind for me.
That was where I had to keep my focus now and stick my finger up at everything else.
Fuck it. Fuck everything. Fuck Collin and Emma.
“Hunter, please, man. We’ve been friends forever.”
“Yeah, that’s the part that hurts most. The friendship I thought I had with you. But why should I be sad if really it was just something I made up in my head? Emma and I were... whatever we were. But you...” I shook my head again. “We’re done.”
I didn’t want to talk about it anymore.
Collin bent his head down, took a deep breath, and walked out.
Good.
I seriously hoped to never see him again. Later, I’d call Devon and tell him what happened. He was perhaps the only one from our circle of friends who I gave a crap about. The other guys would probably follow Collin and not have much to do with me.
Devon was different. I met him through work. His firm and my old firm helped out at the youth group downtown. Mondays and Thursdays were our days. We’d play basketball with a group of under eighteen-year-old boys and run a workshop on law careers and how to get into the profession every month. Mostly, it was just a thing we did to keep them off the streets and focused. Collin joined us sometimes, and that was how he met Devon.
It was Devon who helped me put my application together for Impasso. He was the guy I bounced my ideas off of, while Collin jumped on the band wagon and called me crazy.
I made my way into the kitchen and found Jia’s bra. Fuck.
This was where we had come first and had a great time with a can of whipped cream.
I needed to get a grip of myself. Last night was an incident I couldn’t allow to happen again. Not with anyone. It was bad enough that I got so upset, but drinking so much was not good.
