Pretty Boy (manxboy)

Chapter Thirteen

Sam

Gabe seemed quiet as we ate pizza and played video games in the den at his house. I kept trying to bring him into conversations, but they didn't last long. He clearly had something on his mind—something that was bothering him.

When half the pizza was gone and Gabe had died for the fourth time in a single round of Mario Kart, I turned off the tv and turned on the couch to face him.

He stared at the tv a moment and then he looked over at me.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"Nothing," he said in somewhat of a gruff tone.

"There is definitely something," I said. "You've been acting weird since we left my apartment."

He was silent for a few more moments and then he let out a quiet sigh. "Your brother-in-law had a 'talk' with me," he said with air quotations.

My eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Elijah? What did he say?"

"Basically that I should get my shit together if I want to keep seeing you." Gabe didn't look happy to bring it back up.

I frowned, feeling a little pissed off at Elijah. "Well, it's not like he's my dad. He's not even my real brother. He has no say whatsoever in our relationship."

Gabe sighed again, but this time I grabbed his hand. He looked at me more after that, as if I had finally gotten his attention.

"I want to spend as much time with you as I possibly can," I told him, trying to show how earnest I was with my eyes. "I don't care about Elijah's opinion. Or even Danny's. They're not me and they're not you. So let's not listen to anybody else, okay?" I finished, hoping that would be the end of it.

It wasn't like I didn't know that Gabe needed to make a decision soon and figure out what he wanted.

But I was also terrified that his decision wouldn't include me in it. And that meant that this time while Serena was away may be the last time I got to be intimate with him.

I knew that what I was doing was wrong. Gabe and I hadn't kissed—well, on the lips—and we definitely hadn't had sex, but it was still basically cheating.

Serena had always been nothing but kind to me. She paid me to watch her baby, but along the way I had fallen in love with her husband.

I was basically "the other woman."

It was so fucked up.

But...I didn't want to stop spending time with Gabe.

I knew it made me a bad person...and yet...I didn't plan to stop.

Was I going to go to hell for this?

Maybe.

But I wasn't even sure I believed in all that anyway. The only time my family went to church was when Grandma forced us all to go and she had been dead for ten years now.

Gabe seemed appeased by what I said and then we came together, both wrapping our arms around the other.

I buried my head against his neck, smelling his masculine scent that I never thought I would be turned on by.

He kissed my shoulder. "I care about you a lot, Lindo," he told me, sounding like he meant it with all his heart.

I just wrapped my arms around him tighter in response, afraid that if I tried to speak my voice would crack.

I never wanted this to end. I never wanted to let him go.

I had finally accepted that I felt things for Gabe that I had never felt for anyone, despite him being a guy.