Page 2 of Hard to Forgive

Matt winced as he slid into the long bench seat next to Holden and Eli. Holden scooted closer to Eli, and Eli immediately lifted his arm to tug his roommate in beside him. It gave Matt more space and none of us batted an eyelash at the way Holden immediately snuggled in closer to Eli.

They were almost always cuddled up together.

Eli leaned forward, still looking at Matthew, still waiting for any kind of answer to explain the reason he looked like shit. Matthew shifted uncomfortably and grabbed Seb’s bottle of beer. He took a drink and wrinkled his nose at the taste.

It seemed to fortify him though.

“Lucas got offered a job.”

“And that’s a bad thing?” Eli asked, ever ambitious.

“It’s in Texas.”

The haunted expression in Matt’s eyes suddenly made sense. There was no way that Matt was going to move to Texas. It didn’t matter how much he loved his boyfriend. He loved King’s Bay more. He was close to his dad, who lived in town. He’d loved California, but he still came back to King’s Bay after college.

It was his home. It was all of our home.

“What is it with boyfriends moving to other states this month?” Eli muttered. “My friend, Benji — his boyfriend is moving to New York.”

“Are they trying the long distance thing?” Matt asked.

His voice was small and broken. I wanted to climb across the table and give him a hug. Holden beat me to it, reaching out to squeeze Matt’s hand.

“They broke up,” Eli told him bluntly. There was no way he was going to sugar coat anything. It wasn’t his style.

Seeing the way Matt flinched, I wished it had been.

“Are you going to try long distance?” Seb asked him.

“Long distance doesn’t work,” Eli pointed out. I glared at him. “Oh what? I’m only telling him what he already knows.”

“He’s right,” Matt sighed. “And I know myself enough to know that I can’t do long distance. I’m not cut out for it. We’re —” He drew in a deep breath and exhaled. “We’re breaking up. He’s moving in a few weeks. He’s going to stay with me until he moves, but it’s over.”

“What do you need?” Holden wiggled out from under Eli’s arm to toss an arm over Matt’s shoulders. “What can we do?”

“Get me something to drink? I want to get trashed. Completely and totally trashed and just forget it for a few hours?”

“What about work tomorrow?” Eli questioned.

“That is Future Matt’s problem.”

I wasn’t sure that was the smartest take for Matt to have, but I wasn’t going to fight him if this was what was needed. I also wasn’t sure I’d be able to stick to my very intelligent three drink maximum if my best friend needed us to get drunk with him. Seb nudged me out of the way so he could go order our next round. I took his spot by the wall.

When he came back, the drinks and conversations began to flow.

Matt didn’t exactly perk up with the drinking, but he seemed a little better after a few drinks than he had when he’d first arrived. The fact that Seb had convinced him to go back to his place that night instead of going home probably helped. The last thing Matt needed was to go back home to Lucas when his heart was clearly breaking over the other man.

I wondered how long we could get him to couch surf between the rest of our apartments. Probably not as long as we’d like. I doubted we could convince him to just let Lucas have the apartment until he left for Texas. I doubted he’d even want to do that. He was more of a homebody than the rest of us and he always said he worked better at home, surrounded by his rubber ducks.

With each drink and each passing minute, I worried a little less for him.

It freed my mind up to take a look around the Rusty Nail. There were the usual patrons that looked like they belonged at the Rusty Nail. There was Eli’s friend, Benji, who came in about an hour after we did to work the bar. Eli slipped away more than once to talk to him and grab refills.

None of them caught my attention.

No, my attention was struck by a man sitting at the bar. He was alone, shoulders hunched as he nursed a bottle of something. His white blonde hair called me like a beacon, and I couldn’t look away.

“Just go talk to him.”

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