Page 5 of He's the One

“Of course you can. You don’t need to ask.”

“Give my love to Dad.”

“I will. Call any time, Col. We’re here for you. Okay? Love you, sweetheart!”

“Love you too.” Col exhaled as he ended the call.

His mum and dad hadn’t been able to have children of their own and after fostering him for a year, they’d wanted to adopt him. He’d tried to explain why it wasn’t a good idea, though he knew they hadn’t really understood. But the one thing his brother had asked was that Col didn’t let himself be adopted. “You’re all I have,” Dominic had said. “It’s you and me.”

Col hadn’t told Robert about Dominic. Not a word. He was glad about that now. He went through his photos and deleted every image of Robert, including those with the two of them because he didn’t want to see himself smiling at the bastard ever again.

Yet it hurt.

Pain still underscored everything, punctuating every thought and action. Pressing delete might be easy, but getting Robert out of his head was much more difficult. When he’d asked Col to move into his place two weeks after they’d met, it had been easy to say yes. Robert had love-bombed him, overwhelming him with exciting sex, admiring comments and funny little gifts, and they’d been happy. Now all that happiness had been destroyed.

When he finally heard Robert’s key in the lock, Col’s stomach churned.

“Hey, why’s your car in my space? Go and shift it.”

Col stood up. How long would it take Robert to notice all his stuff had gone?

“I don’t get awelcome home?” Robert frowned.

Col saw the moment he spotted the photo on the fridge, then Robert turned to face him. He looked different. Not as good-looking, not as charming, no longer devoted to Col, but then he never had been.He was never mine.Col waited for his heart to cramp but it didn’t.

“Did you follow me?” Robert snarled.

“How would I do that?”

“You might have trailed me home.”

Col’s heart did clench at the wordhome. “I thought this was your home. I was stupid for not guessing. Your wife and kids?”

Robert shrugged and dropped down on the couch. “Megan wanted to bring Cosmo and Alicia to stay at the flat this weekend. I said there’d been a water leak from the flat above. We spent Friday and Saturday night in a hotel.”

“They live in Bath?” Col curled his toes in his shoes.

“Yes.” He looked around. “You’ve taken your stuff. I don’t want you to leave.”

“You’ve lied to me for eight months.”

“I couldn’t tell you I was married, could I? You’d never have moved in.”

How did Robert manage to make that sound like Col’s fault.

“You used me.” Exchanging his dingy studio apartment in Woolwich for a smart two-bed flat in Islington, close to the high street… Well, Col had thought he was the luckiest guy ever, even if his share of the bills turned out to be more than he could really afford, even when Robert was in one of his moods. But Robert had used him.Sex and money.

“With your pathetic wages? I didn’t even need your money but you wanted to feel you’dcontributed.” He made little air quotes.

Col bristled.

Maybe Robert saw his reaction because he pushed to his feet. “We worked, didn’t we? You can’t just walk away from that.”

“Watch me.”

Robert’s eyes darkened and his jaw tensed. Signs Col knew to look out for. Robert had never hit him when he’d lost his temper, but Col had worried he might.

Then Robert’s face softened and he sighed. “I’ve fucked up. I’m sorry. You’re kind, unselfish, fun to be around. Not demanding. Never moan. You can make me smile even after the crappiest of days. You care about me and I took you for granted.”

---