I didn’t tell Ross about the conversation I’d had with Kyle, and we spent that evening at the loft, watching the new Lord of the Rings - Return of the King Extended Edition DVD. I ended up watching the second half of that alone; Ross was softly snoring beside me on the couch. When the movie was over, I snuggled up to him, and quickly fell asleep.

Saturday and Sunday we went up to Castle Pines Village, to spend the rest of the weekend with Sofia, Andrew, his wife and kids and Ross’s older sister, Marcia, who was celebrating a belated birthday.

So I came back at Warner Gaming after a pretty busy weekend, with enough to entertain Jodie well into the week, with stories about Marcia’s antics, Ross’s sleeping session during a movie (which resulted in a “do’s and don’ts” rant for the better part of Monday) or Sofia’s battle of wills with her daughter.

At the end of the workday, I also told Jodie about the conversation Kyle and I’d had, asking her opinion on me feeling horrible.

“Sounds to me that you already know that; you just don’t wanna say it out loud,” she answered after giving it some thought. “Obviously he’s not at all as you thought he was. In your mind you treated him like shit and you feel guilty, because you found out that he’s actually a good guy. You can’t hold the past against him. Your boyfriend, his ex, can. But you? You can’t. You have no right to do that.”

“And who made you Oprah?” I replied, chagrinned.

But she was right. Well, up to a point, anyway.

I hadn’t given Kyle the benefit of the doubt. I had enjoyed our conversation, and when he dismissed the idea of us being friends, based on my treatment of him, after he had admitted at wanting that, I genuinely felt ashamed, because I am not that kind of a person. I used to make up my mind about people by myself. Somehow, Ross, and to a greater extent, Sofia, had made me biased towards Kyle. That made me angry. Not at Sofia or Ross, but at myself.

I pushed my chair back and stood.

“I’ll be right back,” I said.

“Where are you going?” Jodie asked, yelling after me.

“Get myself a new friend,” I yelled back.

**********

I softly knocked on the door, which stood wide open, and waited until Kyle looked up from his work.

“Mr. Norcross, what can I do for you?” he asked, making a ‘come in’ gesture.

“Accept an apology?” I replied, closing the door behind me.

He frowned, raising an eyebrow.

“Unless you did something bad and I don’t know about it yet, I have no idea…” he spoke, shaking his head.

“Last Friday, you said that you’d like it if we would become friends. But I didn’t give you the benefit of the doubt, relying on someone else’s opinion, instead of my own. That’s wrong, and it’s not who I am. So I’d like to apologize and…you know…maybe…we could try to become friends. Have dinner or go for a couple of drinks, stuff like that?”

Kyle leaned back in his chair, a surprised look on his face. Then he smiled, nodding.

“Okay… apology accepted. I’d like that.”

I smiled back and looked at my watch. 5:05pm.

“How about now? Wanna grab a coffee?”

He checked his own watch.

“Um…sure. You won’t get into any trouble over this, I hope?” He rose from his chair, turning off his monitor.

“Trouble?” I asked, frowning.

I waited until Kyle had put on his jacket, and then we walked to my office, where I picked up my bag and coat. Jodie and Mason had already left.

“Yeah… I mean, Ross probably won’t like it if we hang out together.”

“I can handle Ross,” I assured him, grinning.

“I seriously doubt that.”

**********

I came home a little after seven, finding Ross already there. Normally, he’d come home around eight or nine, and that was on a relatively quiet day, so finding him at the loft was a welcome surprise.

“Hey. You’re pretty late,” he said, smiling as I kissed him.

“And you’re early! Why didn’t you call me?” I said, wrapping my arms around his waist.

We went on to smooch a little more.

“Well, I wanted to surprise you; take you out to dinner at the club, rent a movie, have some wine…”

“Sounds good to me! Well, if you promise not to fall asleep this time,” I winked, earning a soft slap on my behind for that one.

“Silence, peasant; as the alfa male, I am entitled to…”

I rolled my eyes, laughing. When he was in this state, a normal conversation was basically not in the cards. He had a goofy streak that I quite liked.

“Oh puhlease…you keep deluding yourself while I’ll go up and change, okay?”

“Deluding myself? Why sir, it’s nothing but the truth. Do I not slave all day to bring you riches? Am I not then entitled to study the inside of my eyelids on occasion? Well, that’s just…”

That went on and on, and I listened with just half an ear as I refreshed myself and changed into a more formal outfit, knowing that the venue of choice was the exclusive dining room at the club Ross frequented.

The first time he’d taken me there, I’d worn just about the oldest pair of jeans I owned, and an old rag of a t-shirt; and sneakers. I’d felt so embarrassed when the Maitre D’ discretely took me aside, offering me a jacket to cover up the worst. The very next day I’d gone out and bought a suit, spending half a month’s wages on an Armani, when Ross told me that he enjoyed dining there on a regular bases.

“Why were you so late, anyway? Busy day?” he asked on our way out, waiting for the elevator to arrive. He hooked his pinky on mine.

We only walked like that when we were alone. I didn’t like displaying it out on the street, so as soon as we arrived outside, we let go of each other.

“No, not really… I…umm…had coffee with a friend.”

“Ah. Already making friends, eh? That’s great!”

The elevator arrived and he pulled up the door. I followed him inside, watching him press the button, and pull down the door.

“Ross…I might as well tell you…it was Kyle. I had coffee with Kyle.”

The smile on his face faded.

CHAPTER *36*

“Come again? I didn’t hear that correctly, did I?” Ross asked, setting a hand on the wall behind me, close to my head.

“Please don’t be mad, it was just coffee, okay? We talked, and I invited him…” I said, taking his tie in my fingers, playing with it.

“Why would I be mad, huh? My current boyfriend is drinking coffee with my ex. An ex who, I might add, can’t be trusted with anything that walks on two legs, especially the ones that are spoken for. Nah, that’s just perfectly alright. Thank you Mark, I was hoping for something to ruin the day. Damn it!”

That last was accompanied by a loud bang as he hit the wall beside my head with his hand. At the same time, the elevator arrived at the ground level but instead of opening it, Ross pushed the button for the loft again, taking us back up.

“What… Oh, come on, Ross. I’m hungry! What are you doing,” I said, trying to get to the panel to stop the elevator, but it was already rising.

“I’m suddenly not in the mood. How about that, huh? I wonder how that happened,” he said sarcastically, turning away from me.

I put my hand on his arm, pulling it so he’d face me; his eyes flashed angrily as he did.

“Can’t we at least talk about it? It’s really no big deal, you know. We went out for coffee, so what? Where’s the harm in that?”

The elevator arrived at the top floor, and he yanked his arm away.

He pulled up the door and stalked out into the hallway, fumbling for the keys in his jacket. He was already inside when I caught up with him, and at first I didn’t realize what he was doing. But then it quickly became clear that he was gathering some of his things.

“Ross? What are you doing?”

“I’m going home,” he said with clenched teeth. “And I want you to think about what you’re doing.”

“What I’m doing? Drinking coffee with a friend…”

Ouch, that wasn’t the smartest thing to say. He dropped everything he’d already gathered straight onto the floor, coming over to me in three big strides, grabbing my arms.

“A friend? He’s a friend now? After everything I told you, Mother told you…you go out and make a friend out of him? What did I do that was so awful to deserve that, huh? Answer me!”
He’d brought his face so close to mine that the heat of his anger almost burned the skin of my face. I’d never seen him angry, not like this.

“N…nothing,” I stammered, looking away. “Nothing, you didn’t do anything. It’s just…he’s not the guy you and Sofia told me he was. He’s changed, Ross.”

When I risked a glance at his face again, I saw a range of emotions quickly passing over it, bafflement being the main one.

“Changed? And how would you know that? You only met him like what, a few weeks ago? And already you’re an expert on Kyle Garcia? I don’t believe this,” he hissed.

He let go of my arms and walked back to pick up his stuff.

“You choose to ignore what I told you, and do what you want anyway. Normally I wouldn’t mind but I have to draw the line somewhere. Guess what? We’ve arrived at somewhere.”

He’d pretty much gathered the stuff he’d brought home that day, and came over again, slower this time, gathering his thoughts. He stopped right in front of me and I looked up. We didn’t say anything for a whole, long minute. Then he bowed his head down, letting his forehead rest against mine.

“I love you, I really do, but you’ve gone too far,” he said, softly. “There’s only so much that I can accept, even from you, and I just can’t be with you right now. So you think about that, and you think about it long and hard. Break off this ‘friendship’ with him. I don’t think I’m asking too much. Please.”

He brushed his lips over my forehead and straightened up.

Then he left.

**********

I was stunned, absolutely stunned. In my head, I could hear myself say “I can handle Ross” and Kyle’s answer “I seriously doubt that”, followed by Ross’s voice continuously saying “please”.

Yeah, I handled him really well. NOT!

I decided to wait for an hour. Then I’d call him. He’d be home by then, maybe calmed down a bit. Tell him I screwed up and that I’d break off the friendship with Kyle, such as it was. It definitely wasn’t worth losing Ross over. That, for me, was clear enough. I’d ask him to come back, ask him to forgive me and make it up to him in any way he wanted. Yes, that’s what I was going to do.

It was about thirty minutes into the wait when my cell-phone rang. I didn’t even look at the caller-ID; I just answered..

“Ross? Ross, I’m sorry. Come back, please?” I said.

“Sorry, you just missed him,” Kyle’s voice spoke, sarcastically.

“Kyle? What…”

“I suggest an anger management course for your boyfriend, Mr. Norcross.”

“Oh no…” I groaned, “He didn’t.”

“Yes, he did; stormed in here about ten minutes ago. He wasn’t a happy camper.”

“I’m so sorry,” I said, closing my eyes, sighing. “We had a fight.”

“Gee, I wonder about what.” He laughed softly.

“It’s okay, don’t worry about it. I just called to ask if you were okay; did he hit you too?”

“He hit you!?” I gasped.

“Oh yeah. He’s got a mean left hook, I tell ya.”

“Oh my god, Kyle… I know he was pissed but I didn’t know he’d go to take it out on you.”

“I’ll be fine. He brought a little extra baggage to the conversation. We never actually fought, after…you know what. This wasn’t just about you and me being friends, which I guess we aren’t anymore.”

“Before I knew he did this to you, I was planning to tell you tomorrow that we couldn’t be friends. But now… He shouldn’t have done that,” I said, sitting down on the couch.

“So what are you saying; you still wanna be friends with me? I don’t think that’s such a good idea. You see, I kinda value my life.”

I could tell he said that with a grin, which made me feel a bit better about what’d happened to him.

“I’m so sorry,” I repeated.

“Nah, besides; I hear blue eyes are real babe magnets. Pity it’ll fade, actually. Anyway, I’ll see you tomorrow. I just wanted to make sure that you were okay.”

“Yeah, I’m okay,” I replied. “I was about to call him, but I guess I’ll wait.”

“I think it’s wise, yes. Let him calm down. And just so you know: no, he never hit me before. He’s not that kind of guy. He just feels threatened, because he clearly loves you. I don’t blame him for what happened tonight, or you, okay? I hope you two can work it out.”

“That’s… big of you,” I said.

I actually meant it. And it proved to me that he really wasn’t the guy Ross thought he was.