Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 79870 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 399(@200wpm)___ 319(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79870 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 399(@200wpm)___ 319(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Looking at the pictures, especially the ones with him in them, hurt. This is him without me, I thought, and closed the photo album.
Then I noticed a blinking notification on the toolbar. I clicked on it, and an app opened. There was no mistaking what it was. A singles app, or hookup app. Guys were plastered all over it, with their user names and stats listed. The blinking notification indicated that there was an unopened message, and I clicked on it with a sinking feeling.
The message was innocuous in itself, just some guy trying to introduce himself. But the already-read messages in the inbox were incriminating as hell. I read through them with a growing sense of desperation. They were all communications between Kage and random guys, asking for hookups. I wasn’t clear on a lot of the slang and abbreviations in the messages, but I got the gist well enough to be sick to my stomach.
Kage was looking for pretty, young guys who were into rough sex. Bottoms only, he’d said, and I figured I could imagine well enough what that was, since I’d performed that very function twice for him myself. Looking at the faces of the guys had to be the worst. Not only could I see all too clearly the kind of guy he was attracted to, but I could also see the ones he’d actually fucked. That just about tore my heart out.
Knowing someone has been with other people in the past is one thing. Having them staring you in the face is quite another. For a moment, I was able to imagine how Kage had felt coming face-to-face with my ex-girlfriend and having to pretend he and I were only friends. That must have really fucking hurt.
But then I was back to simmering in my own pain, staring down Kage’s past and feeling like I was losing. The worst part was that the date of the last encounter coincided with my first day of work at the Alcazar.
Kage had still been hooking up with guys after we met.
I ran to the bathroom and lost all of the corn chips my dad had made me eat. Then I stared at myself in the mirror for a long time. Did I look like those hookup boys? Is that how he saw me? Was I just the next profile picture in a long line of nobodies who had let him use them hard and throw them away?
I hoped not. Maybe it was just my bruised ego talking, but I needed to have been more than that. Whatever the case, I wasn’t going to take Kage’s silence for an answer. I was going back to Vegas, and I was going to have my answers, however painful they might be.
CHAPTER 6
The Alcazar was just as I remembered. I suppose with everything that had happened, I’d half expected a hostile greeting, but everything was just the same as it was when Kage and I had walked through those front doors on our way to the airport almost a week earlier.
The casino blips were a welcome sound, as was the murmur of guests passing through the hotel lobby. I thought of Enzo and the Grotto, and I felt the first mild stirrings of hunger I’d had in days. I was making my way toward the restaurant when Steve saw me.
“Jamie, you’re back. I missed you.” His face lit with excitement.
“Yeah, I missed you, too,” I said, trying to sound as excited as Steve.
His smile faltered, a dead giveaway that I hadn’t succeeded in fooling him. “Is your mom okay? How did everything go?”
“It went fine. I pulled hospital duty, but as soon as they let her go home, I caught a plane back. I needed to get back to work, you know? I was going stir crazy.”
“Yeah,” Steve said. “Too much family time is bad for your mental health.”
I laughed. “Tell me about it.”
“So…” Steve leaned across the counter and dropped his voice. “Did you and a certain someone get some quality time away from prying eyes?”
I shrugged, unsure of how much to tell Steve. “He left for camp right after we got there, so not really.”
“Camp?” He looked around behind me, searching for Kage. “He didn’t come back with you?”
“No. You didn’t hear? Kage got the chance to take a fight in the UFC. The other fighter backed out at the last minute, so they called him. He fights next Saturday.”
“Get out of here! They don’t tell us anything. That’s great news, though. The UFC… that’s the big time, right?”
“Yeah. It’s the opportunity he’s been waiting for.”
“But you don’t sound very excited.” Steve gave me a pitying look. “You miss him, don’t you?”
“I guess it’s a little weird being away from the guy I’ve been working so closely with for so long. As far as bosses go, he’s pretty pleasant to be around.”