Two for Joy - Louise Collins Page 0,6

up and grumbled in annoyance.

Killing spiders wasn’t enough anymore.

Chapter Three

When Chad stepped into the visiting room, the smile he gave Romeo didn’t reach his eyes, and he quickly looked away. He was absent excitement, anticipation, and happiness, in fact, he looked like he was experiencing the opposite. There was no newspaper under his arm, and alarm bells started to ring inside Romeo’s skull.

Chad darted looks at the door he’d walked through, he picked his nails, and moved to the chair without looking up at Romeo.

Romeo’s heart started to thump, hard enough to jolt his body. Even harder than the day Chad set fire to the barn, and his perfect plan came crashing down.

Chad didn’t speak, the only sound that came through the speakers was the soft clicking of his nails as he picked at them. He was nervous and didn’t know how to start whatever he was about to do. His lips opened with aborted words, and he glanced at Fred and Paul, then the camera in the corner of the room.

They’d almost gotten to a year, but finally Chad’s therapist, his friends, his colleagues, had worn him down, had made him see the truth.

There was no good in the monster.

Romeo had always imagined the moment when Chad stopped visiting, he just hadn’t envisioned Chad would tell him he was about to do so. The gently-gently approach was so much worse. Romeo wished for the cut-throat one, of Chad just not turning up ever again.

Romeo’s heart thumped, his stomach bubbled, he could feel sweat on the back of his neck, and his breathing was becoming more difficult. He hadn’t realized how much Chad had become a part of him, an escape, a rare joy, until he was about to be taken away.

Chad placed his hands flat on the table and lifted his head. There were bags beneath his brown eyes—they were red, tired. Romeo imagined Chad hadn’t been able to sleep, dwelling on this decision. If a part of him wasn’t ready to let go, he knew he could manipulate it, draw him back in, but didn’t know if he should, didn’t know if it was the right thing to do, and he wanted to do right by Chad … didn’t he?

“It’s okay.” Romeo whispered.

“What is?”

“What you’re about to do. I understand.”

Chad frowned, then looked up at the camera. “And what do you think I’m about to do?”

Romeo hadn’t been in a relationship before, he avoided them. Being that close to someone, it was hard to fake interest, fake a single slither of emotion, but it had been different with Chad.

Somewhere along the line, he’d stopped faking it.

“I think your line is “it’s not you, it’s me,” but we both know it’s definitely me.”

Chad stared at him, no humor in his face. It had been the wrong time to make a stupid joke. If a comment like that hadn’t even lifted Chad’s lips into an inappropriate smile, there really was no hope.

Romeo thought what other couples did in these situations. When they knew the other was about to end it with them. They fought to keep hold of the one they cared about most, promised to change, promised they’d spend more time together, promised to be more intimate, Romeo couldn’t make those promises, he had nothing to offer Chad stuck behind fences, locks, gates, doors, and bars.

“Wait, you think I’m breaking up—” Chad stopped himself, looked at the camera behind him, Paul and Fred, then looked back at Romeo. “I’m not gonna stop visiting you if that’s what you’re thinking.”

It took a few seconds for Chad’s words to sink in, for Romeo’s heart to calm down, and his lungs to function efficiently again. As soon as his body had processed, and was running normally, he smacked his forehead down on the table, making Chad jump from his chair.

“Thank god for that.”

He was laughing, and when he lifted his head, Chad was smiling, looking totally confused and adorable, but smiling enough that it reached his eyes. Chad wasn’t going to cut him off, sever their tie. Romeo still had his distraction from the hell he was trapped in.

He lifted his head off the table. “Then why are you looking like that?”

“Like what?”

“Nervous, miserable, like you haven’t slept in days. Like … Jesus, Chad, you could’ve put some concealer under your eyes, and sorted your tie out.”

Chad looked down at his wonky tie, then laughed. “Sorry, I’ll remember for next time.”

“So what’s wrong?”

Chad bit his lip, glanced at the camera, then the