Unhinged √

36.

 
       Constant vibration pull me out of sleep and I wake just in time to save my phone from falling off the nightstand to its destruction. I can't help the groan that escape me when I see the caller ID. I contemplate ignoring the call but you can't get rid of him that easily, so I take it.

"Remy".

"A fine morning to you too. Took you long enough but I can totally understand". He sounds very chirper for the hour.

"Understand what?"

"That your responsibilities have doubled". I almost give myself whiplash from rising so fast.

"Wh_what are you talking about? What responsibilities?"

"The one that comes from adding an extra body to your relationship". The tiles are a little cold under my feet, summer is quickly leaving us, almost as quickly as my breath left me seconds ago.

"Remy_"

"Why didn't you tell me about the feline Jake? You know I will never judge your lifestyle if it isn't affecting your work".

"Feline?"

"The girl at the game? I always had my suspicions and I must commend you, it's not easy for a gay man to come out as bisexual these days, even the lgbt community can be intolerable sometimes. It's like they all forget what it feels like to not know what umbrella covers you and you don't even need to have an umbrella, you can just stroll right into the rain and __" He continue talking about umbrellas and rainbows for a minute while I try to make sense of the bullshit.

"Anyway, now that you are in a 3-way relationship, I can understand how demanding it must be and I'm going to assume it's why you are not at the gym right now. Lucia is here, the woman mountain with a shit ton of tattoos? I set her up with one of the guys but I think he has ten minutes before he loses an arm". If only the man could focus on one topic at once, it'd do everyone a lot of good.

"3-way? What the fuck are you talking about?" I move to the bathroom to brush my teeth and wash my face, maybe then I'll gain some clarity.

Travis isn't anywhere in sight and he doesn't go to the garage until 9am on Saturdays, the few times he decides to go at all.

"Do you not have Wi-Fi? You are on all the blogs, sports, fitness, food, even fashion and all she had on in that picture was a plain polo, it has to have been the camou. Not forgetting that Travis makes every piece of clothing look good". I pause with the toothbrush centimeters from my mouth, staring at the phone on the counter.

"Picture".

"They are chewing it up". He laughs throatily. "This new contract really working out for you boss, congrats. I expect a raise soon".

I press end on the call and immediately log on to Instagram. I don't have to scroll at all, it's the first thing on my feed, the picture. There are four of them. In the first one, I'm holding the car door for Ingrid, in the second she is laughing with Travis at the bleachers, in the third we are all walking into the diner but it's the last one that has me perspiring.

We are at a club, Ingrid and I and the background is brighter than I remember. She has her hair down and she looks totally wasted, dancing too close to me, hand wrapped loosely around my neck and I don't look any more sober with my eyes almost completely shut, my head tipped back in a drunken laughter.

I don't have to read much of the caption to grasp its context. They are saying what Remy was telling me earlier, that popular footballer Jake Levinson isn't entirely gay after all and isn't limiting his options. It's obvious that he has a new love interest but his longtime sweetheart still appears to be in the picture. What is this? Polyamory? How interesting.