From My Enemy To My Love (boyxboy) ✔

Chapter 5

Alex

I looked at the text again. I wasn't sure how he got my number. It had been changed since high school. A familiar sorrow and sense of betrayal welled in my chest and an anxiety that I just wanted it to be over. I had thought it was, but I was wrong.

"Let me contact him," Mateo said roughly by my side. The bag of chips he held crinkled loudly as his fists clenched. "I'll make sure he doesn't contact you again."

I slipped my phone in my pocket. "I don't want this to be solved by violence." It wasn't the first conversation we had about this.

Mateo opened the bag of chips and put it on the little folding table. The apartment he shared with his roommate wasn't large. I wasn't sure how he thought he could hold a party in here, but he didn't seem concerned by it. He had assured me most of the other residents on this floor were his friends and if the party spilled out into the hallway and even into the other apartments it wouldn't be a big deal.

I grabbed another bag of chips and opened them. I placed them next to the other bag of chips on the table.

"I don't want to say this," Mateo said, "but maybe you should tell Vincent. You said he handled Jason in high school. He could do it again."

"Vinny would help me," I said quietly, "but he has his own problems he needs to deal with. And I really should figure out how to stop Jason from contacting me once and for all. If I keep allowing other people to do it, Jason will keep coming back to blackmail me."

"His own problems, hunh?" Mateo was clearly skeptical. He dumped a large bag of ice into an extra large bowl. "Like how his mercedes got a little scratch on it? Or how someone is going to try to steal his money or take advantage of him?"

"He is rich, but he has real problems, Mateo. Or do you think because I'm rich I don't have real problems either?"

Mateo's shoulders dropped as he put several drinks on the counter next to the bowl of ice. "I'm sorry. That's not what I meant."

"I know," I said quietly and thought of Jason again. "Maybe I should just let Jason release the recording. He can't try to blackmail me anymore if it's out there."

Mateo stiffened and almost dropped the paper cups he held.

"Would you dump me if it was released? Would you hate me?" I asked as his reaction filled me with a sudden sense of panic. I didn't think Mateo would do that, but we hadn't been dating long. Maybe he would surprise me in the wrong way.

Mateo softened. He put the paper cups down next to the drinks and walked quickly to me. He wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me close to him. "I could never hate you," he said. "I only worry that it will make your life harder. I'll stand by you whatever happens."

I smiled, but Mateo couldn't see it with his head on my shoulder. This was why I liked him. As well as a myriad of other reasons. He was kind, smart, manly in way that wasn't threatening if that even made sense.

I returned his embrace until there was no empty space between us. It was moments like this that I really wished Mateo didn't have a roommate, that there could be a place where we could be alone without the chance of someone walking in on us. Maybe I should move out and get my own place. But if I did, then mom would truly be alone.

There was a shift between us as our hearts drew closer. My attraction for him rose tenfold. His hands shifted down.

It was at that moment when our embrace began to be something more that his roommate walked in. I retreated from Mateo's embrace as the heat rushed to my cheeks. That was one thing I had always hated about myself - how easily I blushed.