'Til There Was You - Jerry Cole Page 0,91

held on to some dull hope that maybe he and Finn would reconcile, get back together, laugh at this silly little period in which they had broken up. He had honestly imagined that one day, all of this would just be a bad dream.

That now seemed as likely as Austin growing wings and flying.

Up until right now, Austin had assumed that he had meant as much to Finn as Finn had to him, that their relationship was more than a fling or a little bit of fun. He had thought the two loved one another and that this would never die. Now though... now he didn’t know what to think.

Finn had never loved him. Finn only loved himself. And as for Austin? Well, to be perfectly frank, he was pissed.

Austin was so pissed in fact that right now, he could think of doing one thing and one thing only. He was going to drive to Finn’s apartment, knock down his front door and tell him exactly what he thought of him. Austin wasn’t sure what that was yet exactly, but he knew it wasn’t going to be pretty.

Chapter Twenty-Six

There was no doubt that Finn’s life had gotten significantly worse since leaving Austin. Even Finn couldn’t deny this most obvious of truths.

He was currently holed up in an airport hotel bedroom, trying to force himself to fall asleep, all the while knowing there was just no way that he would. And as he tried to will himself into slumber, as he shifted in the hard bed, threw the stiff blankets off his torso and punched at the flat pillow, he did all he could to come up with an answer for how it had all gone so terribly wrong.

When Finn was single, he had told himself he was happy. Fuck, he had told himself the lie so many times that he had actually believed it. But that wasn’t happiness. Happiness was what he had felt when he was with Austin. The best night of his life in the past year was one spent indoors, watching TV with Austin curled up beside him. It was quaint. It was boring. It was perfect.

Now, single again, Finn was forced to look back at this time spent with the man he loved and reflect on all the mistakes he had made. The biggest of course was his convincing of himself that being single was where it was at. The second was his using this as an excuse to leave Austin before he got hurt.

Ultimately, Finn was a man who was too scared to call his ex and tell him he was sorry. If he had done that six weeks ago, he’d probably be at Austin’s right now. But he hadn’t, so instead he was fleeing to India where he hoped to disappear in a sea of one billion people.

There would be no sleeping tonight. Finn knew that the moment he lay down on that most uncomfortable of beds. He tossed and he turned and he prayed for sleep. But deep down he knew he was in for a long one.

The sudden ringing of his cell phone had Finn sitting up. He was more curious than anything as his cell was a cheap prepaid one that he had bought two days ago, for emergencies. Only a handful of people had the number and none should have been calling him right now.

He rushed for the phone, and frowned at the caller ID. “Jimmy?” Finn answered the phone.

“What the hell, Finn?”

Jimmy Smoot was an old client of Finn’s that he had recently reconnected with, but only because the guy was now renting his old apartment. The move to India had happened so fast that Finn had actually forgotten that his lease still had another six months left. Thinking quickly, Finn had called every name he could think of, begging them to take the place. As luck had it, Jimmy was also in need.

“Me?” Finn balked at Jimmy. “It’s -- wait, what time is it?” Finn blinked himself awake. The room was dark, there was no clock to speak of and he had zero perception of time.

“It’s midnight,” Jimmy snapped. “So, tell me, why did I just now have a crazy person turn up at my brand-new apartment, just now looking for you?!”

“You had a... what are you saying?” Finn rubbed at his head.

“The fucking guy nearly broke the door down he was banging on it so hard. Then when I opened it, he comes and storms on in,