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There was genuine concern in her voice.

“You too.”

When we hung up, I held the phone in my hand and stared at it. When it started to light up and vibrate, I flinched.

Shane.

I let the call go to voicemail.

Seconds later, a message popped up.

Hey. I can’t find you anywhere. And the truck is locked. Is everything okay?

My stomach tightened. Why was I such a wimp? For him, this was probably business as usual. But that didn’t make him a monster. Why the hell had it affected me this much?

I typed out a reply. Deleted my pathetic attempts at explanation. Started all over again. Deleted again. Until finally a second message from Shane came through.

Ruben? Do you need help?

I was an idiot.

Everything’s fine. I’m okay. A minor family emergency. I had to leave. Don’t worry about it and go party.

It only took seconds for his reply to arrive.

Say the word and I’ll be there.

The tugging in my stomach grew stronger. Shane was completely messing with my head.

No, don’t worry.

Okay. If anything changes, let me know, okay?

Yeah. That’ll never happen. First, I had to figure out how to get rid of this addiction to Shane. After seven days! I could call myself lucky that this connection was cut off now. I couldn’t imagine a breakup after months with him when he’d finally move on to new adventures.

Another notification lit up on my phone.

TopDavey contacted me. Are you nearby? How are things? Have you lost weight yet? If so we could meet up. I’m on my way to a Pride party in Ocean View.

Since I was a polite person, I replied.

Nope. He could interpret that however he wanted.

Then I blocked Davey, the top stud, turned off push notifications from Grindr, and turned off my phone.

Why hadn’t I’ve done that after my first encounter with Davey? I didn’t have time for that special brand of negativity in my life.

If Shane’s last messages made me doubt what could’ve been between us, Davey had reminded me of the reality of dating life. At least for someone like me.

It was difficult enough for me to find someone for a quick hookup. That I had allowed myself to dream of a relationship—with Shane—didn’t make things any easier. I had to be realistic.

But first, I was allowed to wallow in self-pity. Tomorrow, I would go back to making grown-up decisions and manage to talk to Shane. That was enough of a resolution.