Page 86 of Inevitable

Another beat of silence passed.

“No?” Ezra repeated.

“I’m not taking you with me.”

“Why not?”

Bas didn’t really have an answer for him. He just knew there was unlimited potential for how things could have turned ugly in that anniversary party, and he didn’t want to expose Ezra to all the hurt.

Ezra let out a harsh bark of laughter.

“I see. So… what? I can be a part of your relationship on a normal day, but once things get tough, I’m supposed to step back? Am I even in this relationship? Or am I just a convenient way to assuage whatever fucked-up issues and notions you have about what a normal relationship should be like?”

“No!” Bas took a deep breath. “No,” he repeated more calmly.

Christ, how could Ezra not see that he and Drew were the good parts of their relationship? All Bas ever did was create problems for them all.

Ezra huffed out a breath. “I’m coming with you,” he said in a tone that allowed no arguments.

Bas nodded before he cleared his throat.

“Okay,” he croaked. “Okay. I’ll meet you there.”

After hanging up, he grabbed his keys and phone and headed out. He caught a cab and was in front of the restaurant in less than fifteen minutes, but the place seemed to be deserted. Only darkened windows and a locked front door greeted him.

Ezra arrived a few minutes after him. He stopped in front of Bas.

Bas hadn’t been that close to him in days. He longed to walk into Ezra and hug him, but he couldn’t make his body move. Ezra slid his eyes over the darkened front of the restaurant before his gaze met Bas’s.

“Now what?” he asked.

Bas shook his head.

“I have no fucking clue.”

He’d never felt that helpless. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “I don’t know,” he repeated.

Ezra took a step closer, looking like he was going to hug him, but he stuttered to a stop when Bas’s phone started ringing.

“Is it him?” Ezra asked, nodding toward the phone.

“Yeah.”

He lifted the phone to his ear.

There was no greeting. Just Drew’s voice in his ear.

“Across the street.”

That was all he said before he hung up.

Bas slowly turned around. Drew was sitting on the front steps of the apartment building across the street. They went to him. There was a bottle of scotch next to him.

Bas and Ezra sat down on either side of him wordlessly.

“I see you’ve come to join the party,” Drew said as he lifted the bottle of scotch to his mouth and took a healthy swig. He extended the bottle toward Bas with a raised brow. Bas took it and set it down next to him.

“Rude,” Drew muttered.

---