Page 53 of His Secret

“It’s a complicated story and one you probably wouldn’t understand.”

“I can understand quite a lot.”

“I’ve gone over it a hundred times, especially recently. I knew there would be a time where we’d have to have this talk, and I’ve practiced my speech, and even to me it sounds ridiculous.”

A group of four are seated next to us, and I know this isn’t the place to have this sort of conversation.

“Are you?” I ask him. “Just tell me that.”

He stares at me for several seconds before nodding his head. “What I told you in college is true. Everything I ever said to you is true, Matías.”

My shoulders sag. It’s weird to feel a sense of relief over the fact that he’s gay, but that means he can’t possibly be a hundred percent in love with his wife. He’s pretending. His life is a lie, and my heart breaks for him.

I sit up straight and reach for my water. “You said a lot back then.”

Memories of his whisperedI love youscome back to me. Iremember him telling me he’d never been that happy before. He told me I was the best thing to happen to him. He told me he’d never want anyone the way he wanted me.

He watches me like he knows what I’m thinking. Like he’s remembering the same words.

“I’ve missed you,” I tell him, the words coming out of my mouth before I can think better of it.

Adrian’s face lights up and I’m suddenly back in my dorm room, seeing his face light up the same way when I told him I loved him for the first time.

He was kneeling on the floor after we had sex, telling me he loved me. That he had thought to say it before but was afraid. I was grateful to have already been laying down, because I might’ve gone weak-kneed at his confession.

After I told him I loved him, his face lit up just like it is now. His smile stretches across his face, his eyes twinkling.

“I’ve missed you, too.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

MATÍAS

After walkingthrough the hotel for a little bit, we make our way back outside to find it a little cooler now that the sun is going down.

We stop to watch the water show at the Bellagio, our arms touching as we lean against a railing. Adrian naively takes a card from one of the many card slappers on the streets.

“Oh,” he says when he looks down at it.

“Yep. That’s what we’ve been walking on. Look down.”

He shows it to me, and there’s a blonde woman pulling down her underwear, with the nameAlexiswritten down the side, and the request to call her on the right.

“Not into blondes,” I say with a grin.

He drops it with the rest on the ground. “What are you into?”

“I thought I told you.”

“When?”

“At dinner, after Andrea and Drew left us.”

“Oh.” We walk in silence for a little while longer. “How did that come about?”

“That’s a conversation for another time. Complicated, like your own story.”

“I see.”