Limitless - Kate Hawthorne

One Year Before

“Where is Todd?”

Andy’s mouth twitched and he grimaced, closing his eyes and leaning back against his chair. He was full of a dinner Brad had cooked, and he was now making his way through a bottle of wine while Brad nursed a cup of coffee.

Sometimes he regretted telling Brad about his boyfriend because he didn’t ever want to talk about Todd, but it was hard to keep the other man a secret for three years. Brad had told him once before that if he didn’t even want to bring Todd to a family dinner, he wasn’t worthwhile, and Andy had countered with a ridiculous argument. If Todd was content to stay in the relationship, knowing he wasn’t getting invited to meet the family, it wasn’t Andy’s problem.

He wasn’t treating Todd fairly, he knew that, but it had been so long since Andy felt like he’d had control of his life. He couldn’t worry about it the way he should, which he also knew meant he didn’t really love the other man, but he didn’t care enough to send him away.

“I don’t know,” he answered. “I kind of broke up with him.”

“What?” Brad balked.

“I broke up with him.”

“You think because we’re rich now that you’re going to find someone better?”

Andy opened his eyes and arched a speculative brow. He knew Brad wasn’t trying to insinuate Todd was the best he could do, but the worry still floated through his brain. He fought it back because he could do so much better than Todd. Todd was boring and bland, and didn’t understand the stresses of his job and he didn’t listen to Andy, ever, about anything. It drove him up the wall. And the sex. Jesus, the sex was also boring and bland and everything Andy hated…

“I know you didn’t mean that to come out how it sounded,” he said.

“I mean Todd has been with you for years. You know it’s not for the money.”

Andy rolled his eyes. “I have plenty of money on my own, you know. I’m well paid.”

Andy made well over six figures at his job, and he was sent all over the world for teaching and training, but he hated it. None of the travel was on his own terms, none of it was places he wanted to go or things he wanted to see. He didn’t get to meet locals or try authentic food. It was always a five star hotel, then in the office, back to the hotel, and then on a plane home before he even acclimated to the time change.

His brothers thought he had the best job in the world, getting paid to travel, but they didn’t see the downside. Didn’t see the misery and they definitely didn’t see the strain it put on his relationship with Todd, even though that was its own sort of disaster and would have collapsed anyway.

Andy’s dad dying and leaving him the opportunity to be set financially for the rest of his life was a gift he would take, and he would take it alone. He hadn’t even needed the night to think on it. He knew as soon as he heard the terms what he wanted and what he was going to do.

He’d left the attorney’s office. He went home and broke up with Todd, then he quit his job and ignored a week’s worth of angry phone calls from his brothers until Brad showed up at his front door with a Pyrex casserole dish in hand.

“Unless you were going to break up with him anyway,” Brad said.

“I would have eventually,” Andy told him. “I should have a long time ago.”

“You just rushed it.”

“Should I have stayed in an unhappy relationship, Brad?” Andy bristled, topping off his wine and finding the bottle near empty. “I wasn’t satisfied. In any way.”

“No. No.” Brad’s shoulders sagged and he shook his head. “That’s not what I meant. It just came out of nowhere.”

“For you.”

“For me,” Brad agreed.

“Besides, I don’t like to talk about things like that.” He gestured vaguely to the apartment, now void of Todd’s things. “It’s a family trait, isn’t it? Keeping everything bottled up?”

Brad’s cheeks flushed red and he looked down at his coffee cup.

“I wouldn’t call hiding a long term boyfriend from your entire family bottling up, but whatever makes you feel better.” Brad leveled a judgmental look at him. “Anyway, where are you going first?”

“I haven’t got that far. I have a map, but I haven’t figured out the order.”

“When are you leaving?”

“As soon