Wow.
I shake of my head with a roll of my eyes.
Typical asshole.
He throws his hands up in the air. “What’s it going to be? You want me as I am or not at all? Because that’s all I’ve got to offer.”
I glare at him.
“Fine.” He slams his drink down on the table so hard that it sloshes all over the sides. “Go back to your boyfriend, because unlike me”—he holds his fingers up to air quote me— “he deserves you.”
He storms out and slams the door behind.
The room falls silent, and I close my eyes in disgust.
Fuck.
The ballroom, now loud and filled with jovial chatter, is host to a charity function for a local hospital.
I’m sitting with Jeremy, and boy, are we fun to be around, each of us now silent and sulky. Bart’s loud laughter can be heard all the way from over at the bar. I look over and see he’s talking to Sebastian, as well as a few other men. Each of them are laughing and having fun without a care in the world.
Fuckers.
I look back at Jeremy, who is forlorn and miserable.
“I have to ask… what do you see in Bart?”
He shrugs. “I wish I knew.”
I glance back to the bar to see Bart is telling an animated story. The men around him are hanging off his every word. Whatever he’s saying is apparently very funny.
“I overheard your fight with him today at lunch”
Jeremy rolls his eyes and sips his wine. “Sorry.”
“Don’t apologize, although you’ll have to explain it to me because I’m confused as hell.”
He drops his forehead into his palm, his elbow resting on the table. “That makes two of us,” he mutters dryly. “I met Bart at a conference in Atlanta about seven years ago. I was a PA to another lawyer at the time. We were out with a large group and, one by one, they dwindled off and went home. It ended up being just the two of us left in the bar. We drank and laughed, and somehow the conversation turned to our sexualities. I told him that I was gay and that I’d never been with a woman. He told me that he was straight and that his only regret in life was that he hadn’t experimented in college like everyone else. He’d always wondered what it would be like to be with a man, but now that he was older, it was never going to happen. The more we drank, the more we clicked. The chemistry was like nothing I’d ever felt before.
I imagine the scenario as he explains it, I can almost see the two of them alone in a bar.
“He told me he and his wife had fallen out of love, and that they had decided to separate. It was completely amicable, and they were only friends now. He said he loved her like a sister and that it was sad for both of them because they had four young children together. Having a separated family wasn’t anything either of them ever imagined.”
His eyes rise to mine, and I offer him a soft, reassuring smile as I put my hand over his.
“When we were walking back to our hotel, he kissed me.” Jeremy drops his head, as if ashamed.
I squeeze his hand. “And?”
“And it got heated outside my hotel room. I told him that he was married and that he should go home. I didn’t see him again for the rest of the conference. I heard that he’d left at some point because he fell ill. But I knew the real reason was that he was disgusted with himself for making out with a guy.”
Bart’s loud laugh drifts over from the bar again, and my eyes rise to him. I exhale heavily. Sebastian is now smoking a cigar. I watch him lift it to his lips and inhale as he listens to Bart.
Fuckers.
“Six weeks later, Bart turned up at my office. He told me that I was all he could think about, that he was going insane over me, and that he had left his wife because of it.”
Jeremy exhales, clearly frustrated. “We went out for dinner then back to his new apartment. Everything was still in boxes. We ended up having sex.”
I watch him struggle, knowing he’s ashamed.
“It was the best fucking sex I’ve ever had. I’d like to tell you that it was nothing special, but we fell madly in love. From the moment he first touched me, I was done for. We were inseparable, and I moved in eight weeks later.” He stares off into the distance.
“So, you live together now?”
He raises his eyebrow and sips his wine. “Not long after I moved in, he started having trouble with his eldest daughter.”
“Didn’t she like you?”
He scoffs. “Bart would never admit to being with a man. To everyone else, I was his roommate. Nothing more. When his kids would come over, he would treat me like he didn’t even know me. I understand why, but that didn’t make it hurt any less.
Anyway, his kids were desperate for Bart to get back together with their mother. His eldest daughter Heidi became depressed. It was a terrible time. Bart was worried sick, and I was worried, too. I’d gotten to know his children, and I cared for them as well. They are great kids.”
He drains his drink in one gulp. There’s a lot of pain in this story. I can feel it oozing out of him.
“When Heidi was twelve, she tried to commit suicide.”
My face falls.
“It was… horrendous. Poor Robyn and Bart.”
“Robyn?”
“Bart’s wife.”
“You know her?”
He nods. “Not something I’m proud of.”
Hell, this story is a doozy.
“Heidi nearly died. It was touch and go. She spent two weeks in intensive care. Thankfully, she survived, but when she got out of hospital, all she wanted was for Bart to move home to be with her.”
My heart drops.
“And he did what any father would do. He moved home to be with his daughter.”
“God, Jeremy.” I sigh.
“Bart told me it wouldn’t be for long—that he wanted me to go and work for him so that he could spend his days with me because we couldn’t be apart.”
“Where do you live now?”
“I’m still in our apartment with all our things. He comes over most nights for an hour or so, when he’s at the”—he holds up his fingers to air quote— “gym.”
“Fuck.”
“He keeps telling me that he’s still there because of Heidi, and I believed him. I mean, I spend more time with him than anyone. All day, every day, every night, we make love, and on the weekends, we often go away. But a few weeks ago, I went to a function with a friend and Bart didn’t know I was there. He was there with Robyn.” He pauses. “I was watching them from the shadows.”
“And?”
“The way she was looking at him. Their body language.”
“What?”
“They’re sleeping together again. I know it.”
“Hell.” I drag my hand down my face.
Jeremy smiles flatly and holds his champagne glass up. “So, there you have it. My fucked-up love life. I’m in love with a married man who I sleep with most days and swears his undying love for me. One who is going away to New York with his wife next week for his anniversary without his kids. You can figure out why I’m upset.”
“How do you know he’s going away with her? Maybe it’s a mix up.”
“Robyn called me to see if I had any ideas on what she could buy them for their anniversary. Told me all about the romantic weekend away that Bart had organized for her.”