even bitched to my friends. It was Danny who told me it served me right, which only pissed me off more.”
The conversation faltered as the waitress came by to refill their coffee cups. After she left Travis confessed, “I was all ready to storm out of the place and never see you again, when one of Danny’s friends followed me out to the parking lot.”
“Oh?” The knife twisted in James’ heart that he hadn’t been the only one to leave with someone, but still, he had no right to complain after what he’d done.
“We just talked!” Travis blurted, face coloring even more. “And only for a few minutes!”
“Oh,” he replied, relieved that it was only his moment of weakness that needed dealing with.
“He told me something about that Alex guy that I didn’t know. It seems he gets a sick thrill out of busting up couples.” Travis ran his hand through his short-cropped blond hair, slowly blowing out a breath before continuing, “Apparently, he uses that ploy all the time. Danny’s friend, Joe something-or-other, fell for it just like I did. Like you, his lover got mad and left with Alex.”
“What happened to them?” James asked, wondering if there was a way to get past so blatant an infidelity, regardless of who was to blame.
“He did what I did. Told his lover off and said he never wanted to see him again.”
“What happened after that?”
Travis stared off in to space as if collecting his thoughts before replying, “Joe never saw him again, and has no idea where he went. The phone number he had was disconnected, and the guy’s sister came to get his things, and wouldn’t say where her brother was. Now, each and every day Joe wakes up hoping for a phone call, or that he’ll see his old lover somewhere so he can say he’s sorry.”
“And Joe wanted you to know that why?”
“So I wouldn’t make the same mistake.”
James’s eyes were downcast, staring at the table when Travis’ hand reached across the vast expanse of Formica to grasp his. “I don’t want it to be over,” Travis said quietly. “This whole damned thing got me thinking about what it means to be in a relationship.” James raised his eyes to meet those of the man who, hopefully, could still be his lover.
“James, you gave up everything to come to Houston, just on my word that it would work. The faith you’ve placed in me is a greater gift than anyone else has ever given me.
“I still have a lot to learn about being a couple, and I know that I’ll screw up occasionally, but I still want to give it a shot, if you do.”
James looked down at their hands, fingers laced together on the table, remembering all their phone conversations of how great life would be together, how they’d save their money and get their own apartment, maybe one day get married if it ever became legal in Texas, or hell, even move to a state where it was.
All those hopes and dreams, dashed for one rash decision? He didn’t think so. If Travis was man enough to own up to his actionsadmit his mistakes, then so could he. “I’m sorry, too. Last night should have been all about us. I gave in too easily, without giving you a chance.”
A smile and a tightening of his lover’s fingers said, “You’re forgiven.”
What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, his mother had always said. If that was true, then maybe their relationship, too, would grow stronger for this little hiccup. “Let’s go home,” James said, tired and wanting nothing more than to wash the traces of another man from his body, and maybe replace them with his lover’s.
The smile he received in answer once more reminded James of the shy young boy from summer camp, and just like all those years ago, when he gazed into Travis’ eyes, he fell hard all over again.
The apartment was quiet, too quiet for that time of day. “Where’s Danny and Barry?” James asked. It was his other roomates’ day off and they should be lounging around the living room, boasting good-naturedly about whose ass was getting kicked on their favorite video game.
Travis closed and locked the front door, then turned to face James, pulling him into a warm embrace. “Danny’s covering for me so I could come look for you,” he said, “and Barry thought we might need some alone time if and when I found you.”
When Travis would have kissed