My face drops into my hands. I seriously cannot take much more. I’m hanging on by a thread, and it’s a thin thread at that. “Keith,” I bark, loud enough for him to hear through the door, “I swear to God, I will kill you where you stand if you’re messing with me right now.”
“Gus would kill me worse if I were.”
Before I can stop myself, I fling the door open, coming face-to-face with a serious and rattled version of Keith.
“Can I come in?” he asks, and I nod, stepping back and hating how my traitorous heart is already starting to pick up its pace. Keith follows me back into the kitchen. Casper reclaims one of the stools. I stand against the counter on the opposite side and Keith leans against the slice of counter between us.
My heart trembles at the silence that sits heavy in the room.
“Gus and I went to Damien’s together,” Keith finally starts, and I realize I’m poised on my tiptoes, ready to pounce on him and shake the words from him if he doesn’t speed this up. “You already know this.” He chuckles mirthlessly, noting my expression. “I was drinking Jack and he was sipping on a beer and all was normal. Until it wasn’t. I was talking with a girl for most of the night, so I wasn’t paying attention. The next thing I know, Gus is wasted. And not just wasted for Gus, like really fucked up. I haven’t seen him like that, I don’t think ever, but he was talking and standing up straight, and when I was ready to leave, he said he wasn’t.” Keith’s gaze drops toward the stone. “I shouldn’t have left. But…”
“You’re not his keeper and Gus is an adult man capable of making his own decisions?” Casper supplies and Keith glances toward him and nods.
“Yeah. That. But I still should have stayed. I didn’t know though.”
“Then what?” I ask, unable to help myself.
“I was asleep when my phone rang. It was Damien telling me I had to come and get Gus. That he was passed out, half-naked in one of his guest bathrooms. I raced right over. In all the years I’ve been friends with Gus, and that’s going back to childhood, he’s never passed out anywhere. He’s been fucked up beyond all measure, but he’s always found the line and never crossed it. I was scared,” he admits, and my I can feel my heart softening.
Both to Keith and Gus.
I haven’t even heard the whole story, and yet, my anger and pain are dissipating with each breath I take. That freaking video running through my mind isn’t helping.
“When I got there, I woke him up and he immediately started throwing up. I mean, sick, dude. Like his entire body was in on the action. His skin was sheet-white, he was sweating, and everything he said was slurred. The first thing he said was that he didn’t drink like that. He told us what he could remember, which was nothing. I mean, barely anything. Then he was worried about you.” He points to me. “He was fucking frantic over it, and when he checked his phone, he saw a text he said he knew he didn’t send you.”
I take a step back before I can stop it, crashing into the dials on my stove and nearly turning them on and setting myself on fire. Okay, maybe that’s a little dramatic, but right now, I can see that happening with how today has been.
Because I remember thinking when that text came in that Gus wouldn’t text me in that way. That the words he used weren’t typical of him.
My teeth hit my bottom lip and I nod at him, unable to find words or even utter a sound.
“Long story short, we figured out pretty quickly that someone had slipped him something. He doesn’t know what happened after he took a couple of sips of some punch a blonde gave him. All he knows is that he woke up half-naked and sick with no memory and then you sent him that picture.” Keith throws his hands onto his waist, his expression troubled. “Let me tell you, Naomi, it took, me, Jasper, Henry, and the doctor I had come over to check him out to hold him down after that text came in. After he spoke to you on the phone.”
Salty-hot tears burn my eyes, sliding one by one down my face. “I…” Only words fail me. Gus. Jesus Christ, Gus.
“He doesn’t know what happened with that woman. Only that it was a setup.” Keith pushes away from the counter and walks toward me, standing before me tall and determined. “He loves you. He fucking loves you more than he’s ever loved anyone or anything before. He would have never done anything intentionally to ruin what you two have or to hurt you.”
I swallow hard, thinking back on the things Gus has said to me. The love in his eyes. His touch against mine. He told me once that he hated himself for the way he treated Viola when they were together. That he’d never cheat on any woman he was with. I replay his words from earlier today when he called. The way he sounded.
And I nod.
“I know,” I finally say, more tears wetting my face and blurring my vision. My chest aches like an open wound. Gus. My Gus. But… “Why? Why would someone do that to him?”
“How did you get the picture?” Keith asks, and I jar, my brain working in ways I can no longer stop.
“Florian,” I say resolutely.
Keith’s eyes turn to stone, his jaw matching them.
“Florian took the picture,” Casper says, and Keith steps back, allowing me to see him.
“Yes.”
“And it was a blonde?” he continues, tilting his head, his eyes searching as if this piece of information is everything.
“Yes.”
“Show me again.”
I walk back into my music room to retrieve my phone.
I pull up the picture and slide it across the counter to him. He picks it up, the way he did earlier, only this time, he examines it closer.
“I know her,” he states, a scowl marring his face. “That’s Angelica. She’s been Florian’s on and off casual girl since you walked out of his life.” And surprisingly, those words don’t hurt. There is no jealousy or resentment. Only the budding of an even stronger hatred for my ex. “It was mostly based around drugs,” he continues. “I think she’s where he used to get them.”
“So, if Florian took this picture and that’s his girl who has access to drugs…” Keith trails off.
“Yes. She could have easily drugged Gus, lured him upstairs after he was already completely out of it, and Florian could have taken that picture.”
And that’s when I start to shake.
Because how could someone do that to another person? What kind of man does that? Florian. A man I used to love. A man who I was ready to marry.
He poisoned Gus. Why? So he could hurt him? Break us up?
I must be spewing all this aloud because suddenly Casper says, “Only one way to find out.”
Casper takes out his own phone, setting it down on the counter beside mine. He presses Florian’s number and puts it to speaker so both Keith and I can hear. The moment his voice comes through the speaker, my legs threatened to give out on me. I need to hear this from him. I need him to admit to what he did.
“Hey, man,” Casper says, staring at me and holding a finger over his lips, indicating that I should stay silent. “I just left Naomi’s. She showed me one hell of a picture you took.”
Florian laughs and my jaw clenches tighter than a nun’s asshole. I get the reminder again from Casper and feel Keith’s hand on my forearm, trying to ground me as well.