After Felix - Lily Morton Page 0,32
laughs, his face lightening. “Okay,” he says. “Red wine for you?” I nod, and he turns to Patrick. “Hemlock for you?”
Zeb shakes his head and steers Max away, leaving me and Patrick in a very loaded silence
I sigh and carry on eating my food. Patrick leans forward in a confiding fashion. “It’s lovely that you’re so easygoing,” he says.
I take a sip of my drink and look at him. “I can totally see that when I deal with you.”
He laughs in a very fake way and pats my arm. “No, silly. I mean you and Max. It’s good that you’re so easygoing because any other man would find him highly difficult to deal with.”
“He’s not Bluebeard,” I say lightly. “I haven’t suddenly discovered a stash of bodies in a secret room. Not even at The Ritz.”
“I’m not sure even Bluebeard would have brought the man he’s currently fucking to the wedding of the one who got away.”
Time seems to stop for a minute, everything going utterly still and silent. Then with a jumpstart, the noise comes back, and I blow out an unobtrusive breath. The food suddenly tastes like ash in my mouth.
He sits back in his chair and carries on talking. “I’m relieved, to be honest, Felix. You’re very flippant, but I thought even you might be bothered.”
“Bothered by what?” I say sharply. “Spit it out, Patrick. Which is something you probably do a lot of. What are you trying to tell me?”
“Have you met Ivo?”
“I have,” I say slowly. “Very nice.”
“I suppose I’m surprised you’d say that. It’s got to be difficult to meet the man who your boyfriend has been fucking for years.”
“What?” I ask hoarsely before I can think.
He looks highly delighted. “Did you not know? Max and Ivo were lovers for years.”
With the unerring timing he likely honed during his reporting days, Max turns up with his hands full of drinks. “What’s up?” He suddenly furrows his brow, obviously gauging the atmosphere at the table as being at DEFCON 1. “What’s going on?” he repeats hesitantly.
“Oh, Max,” I say tonelessly. “You’ve got some explaining to do.”
Five hours later, I let myself into the bedroom with Max following me. I immediately move over to the window to open it. The briny scent of the sea pours in, mingling with the smell of fresh-cut grass. “Well, that was an absolutely smashing evening,” I say, staring out unseeingly. “Ranks right alongside my root canal and the time that I broke my arm. I have to thank you, Max. You really know how to treat a boy.”
“I’m sorry,” he says, the slur heavy in his voice. “I should have told you.”
“Yes, you fucking should,” I hiss, turning to face him.
He’s sitting on the end of the bed, head in his hands, and listing slightly to one side due to the massive amount of alcohol he’d consumed tonight. I’ve never seen him drink like that before. One drink after another with a studied attention to the act, as though he’d be tested on it later.
I wasn’t exaggerating when I said it had been a shitty evening. We hadn’t been able to talk about it beyond a hissed conversation because we’d had to troop off to the rehearsal and then into the big meal, and a wedding isn’t the time for heated words.
At the thought of the wedding, my eyes narrow and the rage that’s been simmering all night boils over.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I say heatedly and watch him wince. “You could and should have said something.” He looks up, his eyes squinting to focus. I shake my head. “I understand exes, Max, even if I’ve never been in enough of a relationship to get one. But this was awful. You let me be totally blindsided by that wanker Patrick. I had no idea that you were fucking one of the grooms, and I should have done because everyone else knew.”
“I know,” he says hoarsely. “I’m so sorry.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
He hesitates, and I’m sure some tiny sober part of his brain is screaming at the drunk side to stop talking. I stare steadily at him, and he slumps.
“I don’t know,” he finally says with drunken earnestness. “That was in another life and not in the one I’m leading now. It was years ago and it wasn’t important, anyway. Ivo and I were only ever friends who fucked. It could never be anything else. I guess I never thought you needed to know.”
I stare at him, and he