Page 10 of A Series of Rooms
Ben was in and out of consciousness in the passenger seat, the window fogging where his breath ghosted from his open mouth. Twice, they’d had to pull over when his dry heaving came a little too close to the real thing. Predictably, Liam took the backseat. He hadn’t uttered a word to them all morning, and he had every intention of continuing that trend all the way home.
Jonah’s note burned a hole through his pocket, the memory of the night before clinging around him like a dense fog. The domino line of red flags had toppled to a cataclysmic finale, leaving Liam wide awake in the aftermath of Jonah’s breakdown. He’d hardly slept at all. He had too manyquestions. Would he have even been brave enough to ask them, if Jonah had stayed until morning? Would it have been his place? How thin was the line between one person’s responsibility to another and a breach of boundaries?
Liam had no business casting himself as anyone’s savior, nor projecting the role of a victim onto someone he had known for a single night, but their encounter left him aching for reassurance.
Not for the first time, Liam felt the burn of Nathan’s gaze in the rearview mirror. This time, Liam stared back, willing him to be the first to look away. Instead, Nathan’s eyes hardened.
“What’s your problem, Cassidy?”
Liam turned back toward his window, resolute in his silence.
The car switched lanes so aggressively that Liam had to cling to the door handle to keep from swaying over. Ben let out a groan, bracing himself on the dash.
“Chill, Nate,” Ben said.
“No, he’s been a broody little bitch all morning. Just say what you want to say.”
Anger heated Liam’s blood, curling his fingers into fists in his lap. Ben turned halfway in his seat, looking back at him. “Is it because we went out again last night?” he said, looking maybe genuinely remorseful—or maybe it was just the hangover. “I really didn’t think you would mind.”
“You seemed pretty content with your own company,” Nate said. “You’re welcome, by the way.”
“What am I supposed to be thanking you for?” Liam snapped. “I didn’t ask for that, and you didn’t evenpaythe guy.”
Ben turned to Nathan. “I thought you got cash out.”
“Must have forgotten to give it to him before I left.” It was the dismissive shrug, the flippancy with which he said it, stark against the memory of Jonah’s desperation for the same sum of money that was meaningless to someone like Nathan Scott, that broke Liam’s last thread of composure.
“What is wrong with you?” he shouted. “Was this really your idea of a joke? That person yourentedfor me last night is a human being with a life outside of whatever joke you thought you were trying to land.”
“I’m failing to see how I’m the bad guy here. He offered a service, I took him up on it. Is this all because I forgot the money? I can send the fucking money.”
“This,” Liam seethed, “is because you have spent this weekend proving to me how incapable you are of caring about anyone other than yourselves.”
“What are you talking about?” Nathan said. “We brought you to the city, we bought your drinks, we paid for the hotel. What more do you want?”
“Drink,”Liam corrected. “You bought meonedrink, because that’s all the time it took for you to ditch me.”
“Hey, you’re the one who decided to leave early,” Ben interjected, but Liam steamrolled past him.
“And yourfatherpaid for the hotel,” he continued. “You don’t get points for being a trust fund baby. How did you even know this kid was a prostitute?”
“What? It was on his profile,” Nate said, like it was obvious.
Liam closed his eyes, shaking his head. “What profile?”
“I don’t know. Some app for gay guys.”
“Why do you have an‘app for gay guys,’Nathaniel?”
Nate met his eyes in the rear view with a mean smile. “Don’t say I never did anything nice for you.”
“What are you on about? He was just some guy at the bar.”
Nate’s expression tightened. “You knew him?”
“I didn’tknowhim. I just saw him there before I left.”
Nate’s eyes moved back to the road. He shrugged. “I don’t know what to tell you,” he said. “I searched by location, so I guess he was already at the bar when I messaged him.”
