Page 14 of His Bittersweet Regret

“What were you doing in town today?”

“None of your business,” my smartass little brother answered back. There was a time when we were a lot closer and he practically worshiped the ground I walked on. That time passed the minute I broke up with Opal. Ryker didn’t understand, and he took it all out on me.

“Ry, come on man, when are you going to stop giving me so much attitude?”

“Never, if you don’t pull your head out of your ass and realize what a complete fucknut you’re being.”

“Watch your mouth, kid.”

“How about you get to lecture me about shit when you own up to your own responsibilities and become an adult?” My brother threw the words at me like they were weapons.

“Last I checked, I worked, paid my own bills, and made my own decisions without mommy and daddy supporting me.”

“Last I checked, mom and dad at least knew how to support their own. But you know what? You don’t know shit about that, do you?” He yelled at me, then turned around and walked away. I spun to see the twins standing there, looking shell-shocked.

“What the fuck was that about?”

“Who knows,” Brix finally mumbled as he pulled out of whatever weird vibe he had going on.

“Kid has a point,” Bastion told Brix.

“Shut it. You and I both know it was just a ploy.”

“I don’t think so, man. I’ve heard things,” he retorted quietly.

“Whatever, Bas. You’re with me or against me, at this point.”

“Yeah. Brix, you made that perfectly clear, but your plan doesn’t seem to be panning out. The asshole is miserable. Never seen him look this unhappy before in his whole life. Is that really what you wanted for him?”

“How about you two take your fucking argument somewhere else, especially if it’s about me? I don’t want to hear shit you have to say right now.”

“Another date bomb?” Brix asked with a knowing smirk. I didn’t bother to answer him, but then again, it wasn’t really necessary. “Get the fuck over her already, and maybe you’ll get somewhere on these dates you keep having. Have you even had your cock sucked by one of them? Touched a new pussy at all? Licked one? Fucked one?” He asked and then turned away from me, but not before I saw the disgust on his face. “Never gonna be happy until you dive in there, and actually go all the way, Marsh.”

He had a bit of a point. My cock was tired as hell of the games my hand played with it. I would be hard as a rock when I woke up from another dream about Opal, but gnawing guilt over beating off to the woman who I threw away wouldn’t allow me to go much further than touching myself. I never made it to climax, and being unable to get off was starting to affect my moods in a major way.

Opal and I always had a healthy sex life. We were together seven damn years, and never went more than two days without getting one another off in some way or watching as we mutually masturbated. Opal was a fucking dream in bed. She had zero hesitation when we were together. If I suggested we try something new, she was all for it. Sometimes, it was Opal who brought up some new thing to try in bed, or out of it. She wasn’t afraid to be adventurous with our sex life.

I missed it. Missed her. Every message I’d sent went unanswered. Her phone went straight to voicemail until it didn’t. She no longer wanted to hear from me, and I couldn’t blame her. Ryker was right. The way I left her – I had been a coward. It had been the wrong way to handle things. What was done couldn’t be undone. So, I kept trying to make shit work because if it didn’t work out – this dating other people thing – then what was the fucking point in throwing away the woman of my dreams?

There didn’t seem to be a point. The experiences my older, twin brothers, kept insisting that I needed to have before settling down were shitty. They weren’t worth giving up my woman for. Not by a long fucking shot. I’d asked around, since my brothers were no help, to see if Opal had started dating or not. I thought, maybe if she didn’t date anyone, I’d be able to go back to her in six months and patch things up between us. It was honestly what I always thought would happen anyway.

We would both go live, explore, maybe learn some new things, but eventually find our way back to one another. The only flaw in that logic was something my baby brother had pointed out to me months ago.

“That might have been all fine and dandy, if you had talked to her about it ahead of time and she actually agreed to that bullshit you’re spewing. You didn’t have that talk. Instead, you emptied your apartment out while she was gone, and then you just told her you were done and walked away without giving her a chance to say anything. If you think she’ll wait around or come back to you after that – you’re a bigger idiot than you made yourself out to be.”

His words burned into my soul because I knew, somewhere deep down inside, that he was absolutely right. My youngest brother was turning out to be the wisest of us all.

9

Opal

“See this here?” Doctor Burns asked as he pointed to the center of my baby’s splayed legs. Before he could get anything else out, Ryker hooted out loud, like the little lunatic he was.

“It’s a boy!” He yelped. “You’re having my nephew!”

I couldn’t help the grin that spread across my face, since Ryker’s exuberance was contagious. “A boy,” I all but hummed.

“Are you excited?”

---