Page 91 of Get Undressed With Me

Robbie was a mess in a way that Gus hadn’t seen since college, when Robbie had first discovered the Long Island Iced Tea had zero tea in it.

Gus managed to wrangle him into a cab, and then back to his hotel room. After a brief wrestle for the door key, Gus got him inside, noting that the hotel room looked a mess.

“Jesus, Robbie, what happened here?”

Robbie cast a bleary look around the place.

“I don’t know, it just looks like this.”

Gus managed to get Robbie on the bed. There was something so familiar about this, cleaning up after Robbie had fucked everything up. Dropping his plans for the night just because Robbie needed help. And Gus resolved that this was going to be the last time. He couldn’t keep putting Robbie first. He was a grown man and could take care of himself, and Gus had to let him.

But since he was here, he’d try one last time.

“Robbie. What the hell are you doing?”

Robbie groaned. “Just leave if you’re going to be an ass.”

“I’m not being an ass, I’m genuinely asking. You were cheating on Brittany, so it’s not like you were invested in your relationship. You lost Diamond, a woman who seems incredibly nice and intelligent, and you lied to her face for months. And now you keep digging your own holes, tripping into them and falling. What’s the plan here, man?”

Robbie didn’t answer at first, and Gus briefly wondered if he had passed out. And then Robbie started talking.

“I knew you liked Brittany. When I first brought her home.”

Gus startled. “I never—”

“You didn’t have to. I saw it on your face. You practically lit up from the inside. And when I took her hand, I saw your face fall, like you had lost something important. It haunts me.”

Gus thought back to that moment, how struck he felt when he first looked at Brittany. Once he had learned she was with Robbie, he had immediately shut off that part of himself and never really thought about it again. But apparently Robbie had known the whole time.

“We didn’t do anything while you were together. You have to know that.”

“I do.”

“Then why are you being such a tool?”

Robbie mumbled something into his arm.

“You’re going to have to speak up, I can’t hear drunken ramblings.”

“It’s another failure,” Robbie said, a little too loud. “It’s yet another moment of proof that I have no substance. That I’m not worth sticking around for. That I can’t follow through on anything.”

Gus gaped at him. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

Robbie rolled his eyes.

“I’ve heard it my whole life. From Mom. From teachers. And now, apparently, from women. ‘Why can’t you be more like Gus?’ ‘Your brother is such a solid man, why can’t you follow his example?’ Everyone that ever meets the two of us always, always prefers you.”

Gus didn’t know what to say. Since Robbie was born, Gus had stepped into the background, joining his mother in making sure that Robbie’s needs were met, that he was happy, that he was taken care of. Gus could recall times through school, through college, in adulthood that people had flat-out ignored him when Robbie was in the room. Gus had no idea Robbie felt this way.

“Robbie…”

“You’re always everyone’s first choice.”

“That has not been my experience. You are pretty universally beloved by everyone you meet. I’m always the afterthought.”

Robbie snorted, a move that somehow caused him to throw himself off balance, even though he was lying prone in the bed.

“I’m loud, Gus. People like loud people for a short amount of time. My problem is I can’t convince them to stick around for the long haul.”

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