Page 63 of Nothing Special X: The Last Stand

Michaels reached across the table and squeezed his hand. “Syn is crazy about you. You guys have been through a lot. You’ll get through this too.”

Hart pointed at him. “But you tell him tonight. You hear me?”

Furi bit his bottom lip as the nerves he’d been fighting all week, roared back to the forefront.

“Not tomorrow,” Hart stressed. “Tonight.”

“I know.”

“No, you don’t know, because you’ve already let it go a week.”

Furi flinched.

Ro reached for his beer. “And if he acts like a martyr, I’ll handle him.”

Hart sat back. “Free can still make this disappear for you.”

Furi shook his head again, despite how much he wanted to say, ‘yes’.

They played pool after that and no one mentioned the videos anymore.

When the second game ended, Furi set the cue back on the rack, knowing he couldn’t stall any longer.

Syn would be heading out to delivery drive soon if he wasn’t already.

They each hugged him again before he got on his bike.

“Call me after,” Ro said.

Furi nodded against his shoulder. “I will.”

“I mean it.”

“I know.”

He thanked them and waited for each of them to pull out of the parking lot before he cranked up his bike and shoved his helmet on.

The ride home felt much shorter than usual.

When he turned onto their street, he saw the porch light was on and Syn’s car was still sitting in the driveway.

Furi’s heart slammed against his ribcage.

Syn

Syn had been home almost three hours before he made his final decision.

Three hours of pacing from the kitchen to the front room, from the front room to the bedroom, from the bedroom back to the kitchen.

His one night he’d decided to take off wasn’t supposed to go like this.

He’d planned on taking a long, hot soak in a tub filled with Epsom salts, eating dinner with Furi, and—after they’d cleaned and locked up—taking Furi upstairs to do him slowly if he had patience… hard if he didn’t.

He wanted Furi’s hair in his fists, his long body on top of him, and his deep voice in his ear.

Instead, he was sitting at the breakfast counter in the dark, the only light coming from the small bulb over the stove and the glow of his laptop screen.

His hands were balled so tightly on the counter his knuckles ached.