Rock Bay 2 - Letting Go (23 page)

“No, I’d rather stay here and be happy and fight the allegation until it was proven to be bullshit and pulled off my record.”

“You think your word will ever stand against mine? I’m a respected member of the medical community.”

“You’re a douche. And I have witnesses. Pull the complaint, Todd, or this is getting brought before the board at the hospital, and my witnesses have both said they’d write notarized statements detailing quite clearly how you were the one, in fact, who pursued me.”

“The board will never believe you.”

“You don’t sound so sure anymore.” Mason smiled. The witnesses had changed the game. Todd was a smart man. He knew that his word would never stand up to multiple accounts. Mason had won their little battle of wits. With any luck, it would be the last one. “Withdraw the complaint. You’ll never be seeing me again unless it’s in front of the board of directors, and I’m pretty sure you don’t want that. Just let it go. You lost.”

Mason’s only response was a dead line. He smiled. If he knew Todd, the complaint would be gone by the next day and hopefully Todd would’ve moved on to a new sucker. Asshole.

It was peaceful at Drew’s that night, after a few days of either him feeling crappy about Todd or Drew feeling pressured because of the Brock situation. He’d told Mason that Brock wouldn’t quit, even after his mom had gotten some of her friends to see it the other way. Mason could see the strain in Drew, but earlier he’d seemed to shake it off. Like he'd just taken a deep breath and said “for a few hours, at least, it doesn’t matter.”

They were lying in bed, watching a movie on Drew’s bedroom TV. They had popcorn and a few beers, PJs, and hopefully no worries. Mason was snuggled tightly into the crook of Drew’s arm, enjoying that weighty, sleepy feeling that was always best when there was a movie in the background, a full stomach, and someone to cuddle with. He had all three. He was half paying attention to the movie and half dozing when Drew’s doorbell rang, shrill in the calm of a quiet scene of the movie. Mason squinted at Mason’s clock.

“Is someone coming over?” he asked. It was only seven, not late even for a weeknight, but Drew didn’t say he’d invited anyone to come hang out.

“No, I don’t think so.” A range of emotions from confused to worried passed over his face. He paused the movie, kissed Mason on the head, and slid off the bed onto his feet. “I’ll be right back.”

Mason sat in the bed for a minute or so, staring at the paused movie screen before he realized he was hearing multiple voices coming from the living room, getting more and more agitated until Drew nearly shouted:

“Are you freaking kidding, Dad?”

Mason jumped up, yanked on a T-shirt over his pajama bottoms, and made it into the main room before he remembered his presence might not make the situation any better. There were two

older people there—Drew’s parents, he assumed —and a pretty young woman not much older than him. She looked extremely uncomfortable, Drew’s mother looked even more uncomfortable if that was possible, the father had already turned to stare at Mason, and Drew… livid was the only word for him.

“Mom. Dad. This is Mason. My
boyfriend.
Mason, these are my parents and the girl they were trying to set me up with. What’s your name again?” Mason had never heard so much hostility in Drew’s voice, never seen so much anger in his face. It was clear his parents were going to be a problem for them.

“Um, I’m Jessica. I’ll wait outside.” The poor girl had clearly been ambushed as much as Drew had. Mason felt awful for her. He wasn’t in much better of a position—meeting the disapproving parents in pajamas with obvious bed head.

“Um, hi,” was the best he could come up with.
Jesus.

“Babe, come here.” Drew stuck out his arm. Mason didn’t really like the look on Drew’s face, or how Drew was clearly using him to piss his parents off. Sure, Drew’s mom was trying to support him, but she wasn’t ready to meet Mason, especially not with him clearly coming straight from Drew’s bed. That wasn’t a visual he imagined Drew’s parents wanted. He stepped closer reluctantly. Drew slung his arm over Mason’s shoulders. It felt weird, not like them at all. It almost felt like Todd, to tell the truth. Mason found himself inching away from the embrace.

“Is there a reason you two felt the need to come over here and get us out of bed?”
Drew’s dad flinched at the emphasized “us.” Mason did too, but because the word had sounded hostile, not inclusive like it usually did.
Drew’s mother stepped forward. “Your father is just trying to protect you, son. He heard about what happened the other day with Brock.” She glared at Drew’s dad. “He might have gone about it the wrong way, but it was done with love. You have to understand that.”

“What?” Drew scoffed. “Bringing some poor clueless girl over here to try to force me back into the box that I don’t fit in is love?” He pulled Mason forward, closer to him, closer to his parents. Mason wanted to run back into the bedroom and lock all three of them out.

“You’re bi, son, right?” Drew’s dad had to spit the word out. He was clearly still very uncomfortable with it. “Can’t you pick to be with a woman so your life is easier?”

“It’s a bit too late for that.” Drew rolled his eyes. Then he leaned over, and right in front of his parents, he laid a big, angry kiss right on Mason’s lips. Mason hated every second of it. The kiss felt like everything their kisses shouldn’t feel like: possession, objectification, anger. He didn’t pull away, though. Adding the horror of his rejection to the already painful scene would be too much. He simply let Drew finish the awful kiss.

“Are you two going to leave now?” Drew spat at his parents. Luckily by that point, the humiliated Jessica had long slunk out the door. “If you’d like to stay, Mason and I can show you some more of the reasons I’m not with a woman.” Drew started to raise his shirt. Mason wanted to die.

“Drew!” he exclaimed quietly. He understood the anger, but it was going over the line. “
Stop
.” “Why? They’re not leaving. Obviously it doesn’t bother them.”

Drew’s father made a strangled noise and hooked his arm around his mother’s elbow. “Come, Grace. Our son doesn’t want us here.”

Drew’s mother simply nodded and followed her husband out the door. Mason knew that she’d been sticking up for Drew. He was going to have some work getting her back after that asshole performance. Mason waited until Drew’s parents were gone before he pulled away from Drew and crossed his arms over his chest. The sleepy, sweet feeling from only minutes before was long gone.

“What the hell was that?” He had to restrain himself from lashing out.
“It was me getting pissed at my parents. They’ve always gotten their way, and it’s not happening again.”
“That’s not what I mean. Why did you kiss me in front of them? You knew it wouldn’t help anything. It was embarrassing, Drew. They’re never going to like me now. Unless maybe that’s not important to you….”

“Of course it is. I just can’t have them coming here and organizing me into their little box just like they always have. I needed to show them that I wasn’t the same Drew.”

“I want to be your boyfriend, not a pawn in your quest to break out of the mold everyone has you in.”

“But you’re the one who wanted me to let go. To have the balls to be myself.”

He wasn’t getting it. Drew thought he’d done the right thing, and in a way he had. It was just the way he’d done it. “I felt used, Drew. I wasn’t here as support for you when you needed it, I was something you pushed in their face, an object. I’ve been an object before. I don’t like it.”

Drew thought about that. “I was caught by surprise—Brock, then my parents and that
girl
. It wasn’t my best moment.”

“I know.” Mason tugged on the drawstring of his pajama pants. He was so angry with Drew and angry with himself for reacting so strongly to a bad remembered feeling. “I’m trying to understand that this wasn’t a good situation for either of us and not get angry at the way you reacted. I think it’s best if I go home for the night, though. We both need a minute to breathe. This week has been hell, and if we’re not careful, we’ll end up taking it out on each other.”

“Can I call you tomorrow?”

 

Mason shook his head.
Not until I’m sure I can do this.
“Why don’t I call you?”

 

Chapter Eighteen

 

P
ANIC
. That was the only word Drew could come up with. Pure goddamn panic. One dumb moment where his weaknesses and Mason’s issues had butted heads in all the wrong ways and it could all be over? No. Surely they were better than that. No. He wanted Mason. He
loved
Mason. Drew realized that was the first time he’d thought the words for sure, but they were true. He loved Mason. Not because Mason was a man and he would help Drew finally kick his good little son routine to the curb, not even because he was, hands down, the best sex Drew had ever had, but because his laugh was contagious, and Drew was happier sitting around doing nothing at all with Mason than he’d ever been on any elaborate date he’d been on in the past. He
loved
Mason. For real. And he’d made a big enough ass of himself that night that he might have just ended up ruining it. Not to mention his relationship with his parents… and then of course there was Brock. Drew wanted to throw up. He almost silenced his phone when it rang, but then he noticed who it was calling. Lex. He could handle Lex.

“Hey,” he said weakly into the phone.

“What happened?” Lex barked out. Way to beat around the bush. Shit.
“What do you mean?”
“You know what I mean. I got a sobby Mason at my door last night, too hurt to drive home, and he won’t tell me what you did.”
“Why do you assume it was me?” Drew was on the defensive. Maybe because he already felt like such an ass.
“Because he wasn’t crying because
he’d
ruined things. He was hurt.”
Drew squeezed his eyes shut. “I might have kissed him in front of my parents to piss them off.”

“You used him? ’Cause you know that’s what that was, right?”
“So he says. I just wanted to show them that I wasn’t going to do what they said anymore.”
“Jesus, Drew. Are we sixteen? You’re a
man
. You do what you want to do.”
“You say that like it’s so easy. Your family has always been okay with who you are.”

“But a lot of other people aren’t. I just live my life, and treat the people who care about me with respect.”

“And not like someone who’s conveniently there for my use. I get it. Is Mason still there?”

“No. He had to go to work. But he was still pretty upset when he left. I think this is about more than just you. He has a past….”

“Yeah. I know.”

 

“So what are you going to do?”

Drew had no idea. “I’m not good at relationships. I’ve never really been in one before. Not one that mattered.”

“And you admit that Mason matters?” “Of course he matters!”
Lex chuckled. “Just checkin’. I know you care

about him, Drew. You just have to find a way to show it. Right now it seems like you just wanted him so you could show everyone that you’re dating guys—not that you wanted him because you really just wanted him.”

“I’m only out because I had to know him. If I hadn’t seen Mason, I’m pretty sure I’d be hanging out in my closet where I always was.” Drew didn’t know how else he could say it.

“Have you ever told Mason that?”

Drew shook his head before he remembered that he and Lex were on the phone and Lex couldn’t see him.

“I don’t think so….”

“Then you gotta show Mase how much he means to you. That you really want to be part of his life, and you’re not changing just to annoy your conservative parents, but because you want to be with him in the open.”

“Yeah,” Drew answered. He knew he had a lot to think about.

He ran the events of the past few days through his head over and over the next day. How could he prove to Mason that it was real between them? It was sure going to be hard for things to get real if they stuck around Rock Bay. It was going to be a struggle for him constantly, with his parents, with Brock. And then there was the hospital thing, and that douchey ex of Mason’s who made it seem like Mason was sexually harassing him. Drew wondered if Logan had gotten a whiff of that stinker yet. He’d be in the car and on the way to Seattle to murder the asshole before Mason could even do anything about it. Drew probably wouldn’t be too far behind. Sure, Mason said he’d handled it but Drew had to wonder if there was any way of handling that doctor without a lawyer present.

Drew wanted to do something to get him and Mason out of the messes that life had made for them. Only question was what. He thought for a while, until he remembered the conversation he’d had with Logan about how Mason had always wanted to go to med school but didn’t have the money. Drew wasn’t rich, but he could make payments for Mason to fulfill a dream. Even better than that…. Drew smiled. He could help Mason get in to school too.
Derek
. Derek had been a good friend of Drew’s in college. One of the only ones who knew that Drew was into men. They’d kissed a few times, then realized they weren’t very attracted to each other. But they were great as friends. They’d kept in touch sporadically since school, through e-mails and a few phone calls.