Page 69 of Hurricane Love

“Is this a bad time?” Wylie asked on the slim chance there was someone else there with him. In fact, if that was the case, he’d probably need to go puke up his gas station tuna fish sandwich and drown his misery in a bottle of whiskey.

“It’s always a good time to hear from you, boss. Just got back from my mom’s. I was hoping you might call me sometime,” Diego said with a hint of reproach.

Wylie wished to remind him that the phone worked both ways and that Diego could have saved him a lot of heartache and stress by simply calling him first, but that wasn’t the reason for this call.

“I’ve been busy, I guess,” Wylie lied. Busy being depressed and sad as hell.

“How’s the apartment? How’s school?”

“Let’s Facetime,” Wylie suggested because he needed toseeDiego, not just hear his voice. He was greedy like that. He’d spent the last week trying not to think about the man who’d turned his entire world upside down, and he’d utterly failed. He wasn’t going to deny himself this opportunity for connection now that he had it.

A moment later, Wylie was holding a grainy Diego in the palm of his hand. The lights were off in his bedroom, reminding him even more of their post-coital intimacies. He was reassured to see Diego’s gorgeous face, but also sad that this was the most he could have. His eyes burned. Christ, was he going to start bawling again?

“Better?” Diego asked with a soft smile.

“Much better,” Wylie confirmed, though he’d rather have Diego right there beside him in his bed. Preferably naked. Wylie recognized the t-shirt Diego was wearing, one he’d gotten for free for donating blood back when the mobile unit had hosted a blooddrive in the pit’s parking lot. His normally clean-shaven face had a two-day stubble and his hair was a bit longer, now the perfect length to really grab hold.

He searched Diego’s face for the signs of recognition to assure him that nothing monumental had shifted between them, that the deep feelings he harbored for this man might still be reciprocated, even if the distance had separated them.

“How have you been?” Wylie asked. Diego looked good, if not a little tired.

“Eh,” Diego said with a shrug, and Wylie had an inkling as to what that single syllable might mean.

“Working a lot?” Wylie asked.

“Yeah, I picked up a couple extra shifts at the pit. Trying to save up for a car.” Diego dragged one hand down his face and, come to think of it, he did look a bit rundown.

“Doing too much?” Wylie asked.

“Maybe,” Diego said sheepishly. “Just…trying to stay busy, you know?”

“Yeah, same here,” Wylie admitted. Seemed like they were both riding the same shit-tastic wave of trying—and failing—not to miss each other. Wylie was, at least. “You miss me giving you rides everywhere?”

“Yeah, and it’s hot as hell down here. I’m sick of showing up everywhere with sweaty pits. Nice shirt, by the way.”

Wylie was wearing a UF Levin College of Law t-shirt with the old-school Gators logo on the front. “Thanks. They push ‘em on us like cheap pizza and credit cards around here. Listen, there’s something I wanted to talk to you about.”

Diego’s face turned somber, eyes wide. Wylie hadn’t meant for it to sound so dramatic, and he didn’t want to scare Diego, so he simply barreled on. “That last time we were together, right before I left. I shouldn’t have gotten so intense with you, knowing that I was about to leave. It was selfish of me, to want that closeness without considering how it might affect you.” It had been on hismind all week, how irresponsible he’d been, to take Diego so deep and then abandon him.

Diego stared back at him initially with confusion, and then something that looked like a deep affection. “I wanted that closeness,” he said.

“But afterward, you were upset, and I had to leave. And it fucking sucked,” Wylie said.

“Yeah, it did suck, but you made me feel better. Besides, I wouldn’t have wanted it any different.”

“Promise you’re not just saying that to make me feel better?” Wylie asked.

“I promise,” Diego said and made the Sign of the Cross across his wide chest.

“I want you to know that when we do that sort of thing, or did, when I’m in your head like that, I don’t want to do any damage or make you doubt yourself. I’m not trying to manipulate you. I just want to make you feel good.”

Diego smiled. Damn, Wylie missed that smile. He wished he were there holding him right now. Facetime sucked, Gainesville sucked, all of it just… sucked.

“I know. It just hit me then, that you were leaving. Everything felt so final, our last time. A lot of emotions all at once, you know?”

Wylie wanted to tell him that it didn’t have to be their last time, simply one of many, stretching on into the future without any endpoint, but he hadn’t called Diego with the intention of making any demands.

“Well, thanks for understanding,” Wylie said.