know."
Lex fell silent for a long time and I found myself pulling the truck over to the side of the road. Lex didn't even seem to notice that I'd stopped the vehicle. I reached out to put my hand on his shoulder, though there was so much more I wanted to do to comfort him. "What happened?"
"I didn't even realize it at first," Lex murmured. "I was always the one to pay for dinner and stuff when we went out. If he needed to go get gas or something, he'd ask me if he could grab a few bucks from my wallet. I hadn't thought much of it, I just always said yes when he asked for money. I told him about my business, but I never told him how much I was actually worth. Maybe subconsciously I was trying to protect myself." Lex shrugged and continued with, "I ended up extending my stay by several weeks. I was devastated when I was forced to go home, but the guy, Grady, and I agreed to keep seeing each other. It was supposed to be exclusive."
When Lex didn't continue, I asked, "You caught him cheating on you, didn't you?"
Lex swallowed hard and I saw him reach up to wipe at his eye. "I flew to South Carolina to surprise him for Valentine's Day." Lex let out a rough laugh and said, "He'd made other plans… with his ex."
I dropped my hand and closed it over Lex's. When he gripped my fingers firmly, I figured I hadn't overstepped any bounds.
"Turned out the ‘ex’ wasn't actually an ex. Grady's boyfriend worked for the company that handled the rental of the beach house I'd stayed in. The whole thing had been a setup. Grady admitted as much when I confronted him about it. He actually laughed when he said I'd made it easier on him by finding out like I had. He said…"
"He said what?" I asked gently.
"It doesn't matter. I was heartbroken because I really did love him. The whole thing should've been over at that point. But—"
"Lex," I interrupted, squeezing his fingers in the process. "Tell me what he said." I didn't know why it mattered to me so much what his asshole of an ex had said to him, but it did. It absolutely mattered.
"Gideon," Lex whispered, his voice thick with tears. None had actually fallen, but it still hurt like a motherfucker to know how much pain the whole episode had caused him.
"Okay, I'm sorry," I said to him. "I'm sorry," I repeated. I began rubbing my thumb over his in the hopes that it would somehow comfort him. Lex looked my way. His eyes were glistening from the unshed tears.
Lex let out a few sniffles before he said, "He said he was glad he no longer had to pretend that touching me turned him on and that he’d had to think about his boyfriend to even get it up."
It was all I could do not to pull Lex across the console of my truck and into my arms. I wanted to beat the shit out of the man who'd hurt Lex so cruelly. It was clear from how deeply the episode still affected him that Lex had really and truly cared for Grady.
"I'm sorry, Lex," I whispered and then I ignored all protocol and, despite the console between us, I pulled him against my chest. Lex was stiff for a moment, then he let out a soft sob and relaxed into me as his arms wound around my neck. I cradled the back of his head with one of my hands and whispered nonsensical things into his ear. I wasn't sure how long I held him for before he pulled back and wiped at his face.
"Sorry," he mumbled as he tried to right himself. I almost told him he had nothing to be sorry for because I was the one who’d pulled him into my arms. But I held my tongue when Lex continued with his story.
"I tried to leave Grady's apartment, but he and his boyfriend wouldn’t let me go. They wanted money. Grady called it a small business loan and said I owed him for all the time he'd spent with me. I just… I wanted to get out of there more than anything in the world, so I gave him all the cash I had. I wrote him a check too. He warned me not to stop payment on the check after I left. But that