Page 50 of Mine

“Thank you, Trevan,” he said, his left hand closing on my wrist. “What you must think of me.”

“You?” I shook my head, untucking my shirt and unbuttoning it, not wanting to reek of alcohol anymore, yanking it off. “Who did you cheat on?”

He smiled sheepishly. “No one.”

“Well then.” I smiled at him, satisfied that he was fine. “You’re not in the wrong here.”

He cleared his throat. “We should run downstairs and get you another shirt.”

“I’ll run down myself. You and Jo need to get out of here before anyone sees you.”

“Nobody saw that?” He was astounded.

I shook my head.

“Are you sure?” Jocelyn finally found her voice.

“No, I think you’re good. Everyone else is way on the other side. Just leave now. You guys need to talk anyway.”

“Yes.” Jocelyn began weeping.

“Finally, yes.” Hugh sighed heavily, hand tightening on my forearm just for a moment. “Thank you.”

I nodded and walked back over to Evelyn and Marc. “You guys ready to go?”

“Yes.” He cleared his throat. “Who the hell are you, anyway?”

“Just go home.” I was annoyed and certain it was in my voice as I walked over to Daria. “Sorry.” I smiled at her. “I need my jacket to go downstairs.”

Her eyes were all over me. “I’ll go with you.”

“I don’t need company. I just need my jacket.”

She drew closer, hand going to my chest. “I have a room; come with me.”

I moved her hand and reached for my jacket.

Quickly, she stepped away. “Baby, I can’t tell you the last time I saw a carved eight-pack… and all tatted up.” She bit her bottom lip. “Very nice.”

“Please,” I asked nicely. “Just—”

“Hey!” she yelled as the jacket was ripped from her hands as she clutched it around her.

“Oh back off, Daria,” a voice said, full of disgust, and we both turned to Landry’s friend William. “He doesn’t even like girls.”

“You’re fulla shit, Will,” she told him. “Run on back to your beard now before she realizes that you slipped and fell on another dick. How much gay porn does she have to find on your hard drive before she gets a clue that her marriage is all for show?”

“Fuck you, D,” he spat at her.

“No, fuck you, Will,” she hissed back, pointing. “You may have fooled your family with that bullshit conversion therapy, but your friends… we know you’re still fuckin’ rent boys because you didn’t have the balls to tell the whole wide world that you’re gay.”

“Go to hell.”

She made a show of looking around. “And where is the little woman tonight, Will? Did you even bring her? Where are the kiddies?”

“Since this is an adult party and Rose felt that—”

“Rose didn’t feel shit,” she scoffed at him. “You didn’t want her to meet Landry. She’d know her life is a fuckin’ sham if she saw you look at him just once.”