Love Is A Bitch

Just For You

"Sarah, babe, where's the white wine at?" I slipped my arms around my wife's waist, smelling the familiar scent of her strawberry shampoo. God, Sarah was beautiful. That was the thing, I loved Sarah. But obviously I didn't love her enough to stay faithful.

I brushed the thought aside as she moved away from me and said,

"Its in the wine cooler." She was staring down at her phone, uninterested in Spencer and Linda knocking on the door. This was out of character for Sarah, but now wasn't the time to question her about it.

I let the Smith couple in, hugging them both warmly. I poured Spence and Linda each a glass of wine and made pleasant small talk until Nicole and Kenny arrived. They'd shared an uber here apparently, and that made them the victims of relentless teasing from Spencer and I. They had indeed become close lately, but that wasn't really my concern. Sarah had joined the group in the living room, talking about haircuts with Linda. Nicole was making a gin and tonic in the kitchen, and Dallon was knocking on the door.

I hadn't seen Dallon since he left, but we'd texted back and forth casually, and things weren't awkward between us.

I'd told Whitney about Dallon much easier than I'd told her about Ryan. Dallon and I hooked up twice when Sarah and I were fighting. Breezy never knew, and neither did Sarah. The difference between Dallon and Ryan was that I'd never loved Dallon. We'd been friends, yes, and we easily maintained that status even after hooking up. Ryan was different.

I let Dallon in and greeted him with a long embrace. He went immediately to hug Spencer, and sit down between Spencer and Kenny. I was about to go join them when I heard one last knock on the door.

"Uh, sorry if I'm a little late, you know, traffic and all that." Ryan was a little disheveled looking as always, a wrinkled Joy Division shirt, blue jeans, and converse composed his outfit. His hair was a left wavy, and a little bit of stubble lined his jaw.

"You're alright, come on in." I said after an awkward thirty seconds of staring at him.

Dallon's jaw was on the floor and his eyes were wide, he wasn't even trying to hide his surprise at Ryan's presence. Spencer had jumped up to embrace Ryan and so had Linda. Sarah waved and smiled at him from her seat on the recliner, and Kenny introduced himself and Nicole.

"Its really good to see you again, Spence. You too, Dallon." Ryan was standing in between the two guys as they all milled around the bar I'd set up in the kitchen.

I didn't exactly know what to say, or how to keep a conversation with Ryan when the others were around, so I went and sat on the couch beside Nicole and handed her a PS4 controller.

"Mortal Kombat?" She asked as I turned the console on.

"You bet."

The night passed by rather quickly, and Dallon left shortly after dinner. Kenny and Nicole were next, but Spencer and Linda hung around until about 11. Ryan, Sarah, and I were all leaning on the kitchen counter, sipping wine and humming along to the Frank Sinatra playing in the background.

"Ryan, do you need a place to stay at tonight? We have a guest room if you're not going to be fit to drive home." Sarah said amicably, laughing a little. Ryan was drunk and I knew it. I always knew when he was drunk, his voice got a little higher and his cheeks flushed red.

"Oh I'll be alright, if you don't mind I think Brendon owes me a couple rounds of blackjack before I head home though." Sarah laughed again and put her now empty wine glass down.

"Alright you two, don't drink too much more, I'm going upstairs to shower and get some rest." Sarah leaned over and kissed me on the lips quickly.

"Goodnight babe." I hugged her close to me and kissed her cheek before she finally stepped away and went upstairs.

I looked back at Ryan and saw him looking away from me, staring intently at the adjacent wall.

"Ry?" I tapped his shoulder, getting his attention back.

"Mm, let's play blackjack." He grabbed a deck of cards off the counter and poured himself more wine as we made our way to the leather loveseat beside the coffee table.

"Ryan, if you drink much more, you're going to have to stay over." Ryan shrugged, shuffling the cards and not making eye contact.

"I'll get an uber." He seemed reserved, which was unusual for a drunk Ryan.

He put down the cards, and I checked mine.

"Hold please." I smirked. A jack and an ace, perfect twenty-one. Ryan took another card, and sighed in frustration when we overturned our cards. He had gone to twenty-four, which meant I won. I smirked at him and he rolled his eyes.

"I'm sure you're cheating or something." Ryan joked as he set the next round of cards out.

"Mhm, where's your proof, Ross?"

"Oh I don't know, maybe you've got a card in your pockets."

"Well maybe you should come search me then." I winked at him and took another card. He laughed and rolled his eyes.

This time he won with twenty and I lost at eighteen. We played on into the early hours of the morning, not having any meaningful conversation, but lots of teasing and playful bickering.

At around 2 am, he stood up and put away the cards, and texted his uber.

"Really, Ryan, you could stay." I ran my fingertips around the rim of my wine glass as I spoke, gently pulling him back to his seat beside me by his shirt hem.

"Bren, I'd highly recommend going upstairs to your wife," he moved his hands on top of my thighs slowly as he spoke, "wouldn't want her to get suspicious."

"Ryan," I said softly, trying to think about what I was going to say. It was almost impossible to think now, I could feel his breath on my neck and his thumbs rubbing circles across my thighs. "She doesn't think... She doesn't know about..."

I felt Ryan's lips on mine, and I tasted the wine he'd been drinking on his tongue. I tried to pull him on top of me, but he had already pulled away.

"See you later, Brendon." He stepped out the front door and closed it quietly behind him, leaving me breathless and alone on the couch.