Page 154 of Sebastian's Baby

“Hey, where are you?” I ask, but he’s already hung up the phone.

I shrug my shoulders and slip my phone into my pocket before I head to his games room. When I get there, I’m impressed by his new table. It’s very nice. The pedestal base is a large, curved piece of white painted wood that the table itself sits on. It has black rails, but red felt, and it’s gorgeous. I walk over to a matching white painted wood rack on the wall and grab the triangle as Hayden appears in the room.

“Hey, Seb.”

“Hi. Nice table.” I grin at him. “Happy birthday to you?”

“Yeah. There was a ten-week lead time for them to be made, and I didn’t want to risk not having it for my birthday.”

“It’s just missing the Cruise Control symbol,” I laugh.

“True,” he agrees as he begins pulling the balls out of the return to place them on the table. “So, how are you doing?”

I shrug as I start to put the balls into the triangle, focusing intently on racking them properly with the number one as the apex ball and ensuring the eight ball is directly over the foot spot. I place the number three on the bottom right corner and the number ten on the bottom left. After I put the other balls in at random, I lift the triangle and turn back to the cue rack to hang it back up and pick a cue.

Finally, I have no excuse not to look at Hayden, so I turn to him and ask, “Do you want to break?”

He’s frowning at me, but he nods and gets a cue for himself before chalking it and taking the first shot of the game. He doesn’t get any balls down but leaves me set up for the number seven, which I sink easily.

While I’m lining up for my next shot, Hayden asks, “So you want to go to a club tonight?”

“Yeah, I thought it would be fun. Do you have any alcohol? I could really use a drink.”

He raises his eyebrows and shrugs. “Sure. I got some Michter’s the other day. Is that okay?”

“Sounds perfect.”

I take my turn while Hayden walks to a bar in the corner of the room and pours us drinks. I get two more balls down but miss pocketing a fourth and stand back from the table to wait for him.

He hands me the drink, and I take a big swig as he takes a turn. By the time I’m down to the eight ball, I’ve finished the drink, and I pocket the ball easily to win the game.

“Rack them up again. Want another drink?” I ask as I pick up my glass.

“No. I’m not trying to get drunk. Are you?” He raises an eyebrow at me.

“Maybe.” I shrug my shoulders and walk over to the bar.

I pour myself a generous drink, filling the glass almost to the brim before I put the lid back on the bottle and take a sip as I turn back to the table. Hayden’s finished racking up the balls and stands at the side of the room as he watches me.

I break the balls at the end of the table and drop down the number fourteen. When I fail to sink the number eleven, I go back to my drink and take a big swig as Hayden takes his turn.

When I’m on my fifth drink during our fourth game, he’s only on his second, and I’m aware that I’m probably drunk. The game takes a long time to finish, and I only manage to beat Hayden by two balls.

“We’d better not play another game, or you might actually beat me,” I tease him.

“I think we definitelyshouldplay another game,” he laughs.

We put our cues away, and I take both my glass and the bottle of Michter’s with me as we leave the room. We go to Hayden’s living room, and I place the bottle on a table next to an armchair that I sit on.

“Are you going to talk to me about what’s going on?” he asks before taking a sip of his drink.

I take a swig from my glass before setting it aside next to the bottle and shrug. “Lita doesn’t love me.”

Hayden frowns at me. “I think she does.”

I hate hearing this because it gives me hope, and I can’t have hope, so I shake my head.

“Okay, she loves me, but she’s notin lovewith me. Believe me, she’s told me repeatedly. ‘I can’t love you the way you want me to.’ ‘I don’t love you like that, and I don’t want to be in a relationship with you.’ ‘I can’t love you like that, Seb.’” I rattle off Lita’s greatest hits for him. “I think I can get the fucking hint. That’s without even mentioning her telling me to fuck someone else.”

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