Hey
I had never been so elatedby three letters before.
The breath I'd been holding came out in a rush of laughter and I pressed my forehead against the steering wheel, feeling like I could breathe again.
My phone buzzed again.
You still comingto Dave’s place on Friday?
Yeah.Definitely.
My reply gota thumbs up only, but it was such a normal exchange that I felt like I could relax again.
Finally, I turned on my car, heading home, a weight lifted from my shoulders.
This was the best-case scenario.
Kamran didn't need his friends doing weird shit to him while he dealt with whatever the hell Melissa was up to. He needed stability and support.
Honestly, I had messed up. I was going to apologize for it again, sober this time. I didn't want him feeling bad about what had happened when all he'd done was laid there drunk while I touched him.
And even though I'd been drunk too, I felt so fucking guilty that it burned. Especially because it had feltsogood. Every half-baked fantasy I’d ever had paled in comparison to his real lips on mine.
“I'll make it up to you,” I promised him aloud. I just hoped he wouldn't hold it against me. That he'd understand without things getting awkward.
That he wouldn't guess how hard it was for me to stop myself from touching him sometimes, or how natural those hugs and kisses had felt.
THREE
Kamran
To say that this week had been strange was an understatement.
Each moment I spent with Melissa, I wanted to tell her that I knew, but each time I opened my mouth, something irrelevant and pointless came out.
Inevitably, I went to bed each night feeling like I was losing my mind. And the person I would normally reach out to—the person that Ihadreached out to on the weekend, made my head hurt to even think about.
That scene on the couch was the strangest part of all of this. So, I tried not to think about it at all.
I just hoped that when me and Ryan saw each other tonight, things would be normal between us.
“You okay?” Melissa asked and her hand landed on my shoulder as she passed me. A light, friendly touch that made my skin burn from the betrayal.
“Yeah,” I managed.
I was standing at the full-length mirror in the bedroom, trying to do something with my hair. As usual, the more wax I added, the more the curls seemed to rebel and stick up in weird directions.
Sighing, I tried not to let it get to me as I glanced over at the true reason for my frustration.
Melissa was putting on her lip gloss. She didn't need much makeup or styling. The pretty girls never did, and she was genuinely beautiful. I'd thought I'd won the lottery when she'd first agreed to date me. Maybe it was hard-wired in, but it just felt likewinningto be the guy who got the perfect Barbie, especially when I'd realized how kind she was on top of her good looks.
Basically, wedding bells had been ringing in my ears from day one. She was exactly the type of person my parents had always wanted for me.
Call me a mama's boy, but my mother's opinions mattered to me a lot back then and still did sometimes.
Plus, Iwantedthe type of life that my parents had growing up.
I was a big boy now, yet here I was, wondering what my parents would think if I filed for divorce...
