Page 2 of Caged for Them

“I can’t stop,” he whispered.

“What?”

“I can’t stop myself. I had Gabi and I should have been thrilled, right? She’s incredible, and so damn gorgeous, and I was sure she would come around on the proposal thing. She only needed some time. But some random weekend chick comes into town from Denver and… I don’t even know what drew me to her.” He went quiet, spinning the bottle in his fingers, but not drinking.

“Poor impulse control?” Mari suggested. “Stupidity?”

“Mari,” I warned.

“It’s okay,” Jason said dejectedly. “She’s right. Every woman in this town hates me, and for good reason. Gabi probably hesitated at the proposal because she’d heard things.”

“I’m sure she would have said yes. You’re a great catch,” I said.

“And you’re so pretty,” Mari added. I glared at her, and she laughed. “What? He has that long golden hair and those eyes. Even with the man bun, I’d marry him just so I could stare at him all day, every day.” My best friend was undeniably attractive, like a young Chris Hemsworth, with sun-bleached hair and striking blue eyes, and a body honed to perfection by a very expensive personal trainer.

“Too bad you already married me. Gotta settle for the nerdy Asian guy, I guess,” I said, poking her.

“Oh. You’re pretty, too, Henry. Why do you think I married you?” She grinned at me.

“She’s right. Check out that bone structure,” Jason said. “Though you could divorce him and marry me. I have the money and the looks.”

“I own my own restaurant!” I protested.

“You share it with your sister and her husband. Does that count?” The teasing was nice, a bit more of the usual Jason. We joked about his money, because he’d always had more money than he knew what to do with. And he was generous with it.

“You don’t even have a real job,” I shot back. He had flitted around from job to job about as readily as he cheated on his girlfriends. He was working as a fly-fishing guide, but I doubted that would last more than a couple of years. For a while, I’d tried to help him find his passion, but had eventually realized that he was enjoying hopping from job to job and had the means to do so, so it didn’t really matter.

“Is that why I’m destined to be single?” he asked.

“There’s nothing wrong with staying single,” Mari interjected. “No one is saying you need to have a girlfriend or get married. Plenty of people have happy, fulfilled lives without ever marrying.”

He looked at Mari for a second, as if he was trying to sort out the answer to her question. “I see what you guys have, and… I don’t want to be single anymore.”

“Why can’t you keep it in your pants, man? It’s not that difficult.” I’d had this conversation with him before, but it went nowhere. When he was single, he got lonely, and started to look for a girlfriend. When he had a girlfriend, he cheated.

We’d been friends since we were five, when he’d stolen the wheels to my Lego car and I’d punched him in the stomach. Instead of being mad, he’d asked me to teach him how to throw a punch, and I’d explained my martial arts knowledge. He’d joined me at the wushu class my uncle taught at the Wild Butte Rec Center a day later, and we’d been besties ever since.

Of course, it was getting more and more difficult to remain friends with him in adulthood, as he alienated friends of ours with his cheating ways.

He sighed, combing his fingers through his hair. “I don’t know. I have a high sex drive, and I don’t want to blame my girlfriends for that. It’s not that they don’t keep me satisfied, only that… I don’t know. It’s not their fault, but could that be why I struggle to control it?”

Mari frowned. “You struggle to stick with things, Jason. Maybe you’ve never done enough to push yourself in that regard.”

“Maybe I’ve never been motivated enough to push myself in that regard,” he muttered.

“Why wouldn’t you be motivated by your relationship with Gabi? She’s great.”

He scrubbed his hands over his face. “I don’t know.”

Mari reached forward and did what I hadn’t — she hugged him, pulling him close and whispering something in his ear, and he clung to her like no one had held him for years, though I knew he’d had intimate relationships with a dozen or more women. I had the urge to climb into that hug, to pull him close to me and hold my best friend between us until he felt better.

But that would be awkward, so I sat back and watched. Also, I wasn’t sure he deserved comfort and affection at this moment. It was more like he needed someone to turn him over their knee and spank the idiot out of him.

“Why don’t you stay the night?” Mari said as she shifted away from the tempting-looking hug. “I don’t think you should drive home in this state. I’ll tuck you in, and you can get some sleep.”

“Tuck me in?” His lips quirked to the left, and he looked so boyish and hopeful that I almost laughed.

“Maybe you need someone to take care of you,” she said. And I watched as my grown-ass best friend obediently followed my wife down the hall, and presumably let himself get tucked in. I didn’t follow them, but I heard him ask Mari for a bedtime story, and heard her laugh. A few minutes later, she appeared in the hall, turning off his light and quietly closing the door like he was a toddler that she didn’t want to wake from his nap.

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