before her hand flies to her mouth. "Oh God, I'm so sorry. That just slipped out. Feel free to tell me to go to hell." A small smile. "Although I am curious."
"She has a kid," I say.
Then, seeing their expressions and realizing how it sounded, I clarify: "She has a kid that she didn't tell me about for weeks. And God only knows what else she's been hiding from me. The kid must have a father, so she probably has a husband or boyfriend in the picture, for all I know. She was just using me to get dirt on Storm Media."
"If she has a husband or boyfriend already, then she's a really shitty partner," Harley says quietly.
"Yeah. Well. Who knows? All I know is that she's been acting weird lately, and that's probably why."
"Fuck her," Greyson says, sipping his water. "You're probably right."
"Am I the only one who thinks maybe she really just has a kid and waited too long to tell you?" Harley wonders aloud.
As we look at her, she continues, "Don't shoot the messenger, but maybe she was just freaked about telling you she has a kid. Wasn't ready for you to meet them yet. It is a big deal."
"But then why not tell him that?" Greyson says reasonably.
"Exactly," I agree.
Harley shrugs. "I can't answer that one for you. But hasn't this whole... relationship been kind of messy from the start?"
"Sorry," she says, seeing my look, "Greyson might've filled me in on a few of the details."
"What?" Greyson says, under my glare. "Sorry, man, but we tell each other everything."
"I'd rather not talk about it," I say finally.
"Fair enough," Harley acquiesces.
The rest of the dinner is more pleasantries, chatting about the Coldplay concert in town next month that they snagged tickets for, how Dakota has a thing for throwing macaroni, how Nolan's new comedy routine is almost too controversial. My mind isn't really in it.
I hardly taste the river salmon I ordered. I drink some Cabernet but it only makes things fuzzy, and not in a good way.
At the end of the night, I go home and sit in the same spot in my living room as before.
I get up, do a few pushups. Sit down.
Get up, put away the dishes. Sit down.
Fuck.
I don't want to think about it. But could Harley have been right?
I get out my phone, glare at it.
Before I know quite what I'm doing, I've called Kyra up. No answer.
Another call - no answer.
Another call - what the fuck am I doing? - no answer.
Another - "Landon, what the hell do you want?"
Oh. Shit.
"To talk," I tell her.
"It's eleven o'clock at night," Kyra grumbles. "I'm about to go to sleep."
"Doesn't have to take long. I just wanted to... is there someone else?"
"How could you even ask me that?" Kyra demands.
All at once, I know. She's telling the truth. She always was.
"So, all the phone and weirdness - that was just because you have a kid," I say.
"Yes. Because I have a daughter. Like I told you."
"Don't act all high and mighty with me," I snap. "You were the one who was ducking around, not telling me for weeks. Acting like someone acts when there's someone else."
"Yeah, there was - my daughter."
"As you keep saying."
"It's not like we even had the exclusive talk anyway," Kyra continues. "So I'd be well within my rights to be seeing someone else. Not that I have been, but still."
"I thought we understood each other. That we were on the same page."
"And what page is that? Because you sure as shit haven't shown it to me."
"Isn't it obvious?" Fuck, she's really making me spell this out for her. "We're trying again."
"OK."
"OK. That's it?"
"I don't know what to say, Landon." Her voice is mad, constrained. "You accused me of using you, cheating on you. You freaked out on me."
"Can you blame me? That was a pretty huge thing to be keeping from me."
"And I'm sorry. But I still can't believe that you'd think I was capable of that. I thought you knew me better than that."
"I did - I do, I just..." Damn, how to explain it? "You've changed a lot. So have I. And that thing you said to me, that first day: I hate you. It made an impression."
"Yeah, well how you dumped me made an impression too."
"Kyra. Are we ever going to get past that?"
"I don't know," she says miserably. "All I know is that it took me a long-ass time to work up to telling you