Page 30 of Waves
“And who might you be?” the other man asked.
“Kai came here with me,” Ezra said, the annoyance in his voice as thick as syrup.
“I see. Nice to meet you,” the other man said. Despite the verbal greeting, he did nothing to make it seem genuine.
“Kai, this is Thom.” Ezra let out a long sigh and turned his head away from the both of us to stare at the door.
“His former fiancé. I’m sure you’ve heard all about me,” Thom said with an added smile.
“Can’t say that I have.” I shrugged.
“Ezra and I need to have a quick chat. You don’t mind if I borrow him for a few minutes, do ya, buddy?” Thom asked without really asking. Then he made his way across the room, a firm grip on Ezra’s upper arm while he steered him toward the front door.
“So long as you bring him back,” I said, mostly to myself while watching them leave.
After I finished the last sip of beer, I walked to the kitchen to dispose of the bottle with the rest of the glass rubbish. With a deep inhale, I closed my eyes and told myself I was not mad. I would not get mad right now. Not while I thought of that guy making Ezra so visibly agitated. Or once I noticed how his fingers dug into Ezra’s skin while he dragged him from the room without his permission. While I stood alone in the kitchen, my blood boiled in my veins. I was not mad; I was livid.
* * *
EZRA
The screen door slammed behind me when I failed to catch it. Thom finally let go of my arm once we stood on the front porch. He was pissed. I knew him long enough and well enough to notice the tremor in his hand when he lit the cigarette dangling between his lips. He stood there for a minute, exhaling and flicking ashes all around him while staring me down.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Thom hissed.
“Me? What the hell was that?” I barked back.
“You invite me back to your place, you let me think we’re going to work things out, and then I have to find out from my friends that you’re screwing someone else.” He ticked these facts off his fingers then took another drag.
“I invited you over to talk. We talked, and I quickly remembered why I haven’t given you the time of day in over a year.”
“So, we’re back to this being my fault again?”
“It’s always been your fault!”
“You left me, Ezra.”
“Because you slept with half the male cast of your productions,” I reminded him, my voice rising with each word.
Thom let out a long sigh and flicked more ashes to the ground. “Why do you always make me out to be the bad guy?”
“Because you are the bad guy! Fuck, I lost friends I’ve had since high school because of the shit you pulled.”
“And I didn’t lose anything? Like my boyfriend of three years?”
“You had plenty of companionship,” I said with a huff.
“They were just my students, Ezra.”
“You’re acting as if screwing them was your job and not teaching.”
“When are you going to fucking get over it?”
I crossed my arms while Thom stared back at me. In a way, he was right. I should be over all of this by now.
When I first found out Thom was sleeping around, I was pissed. And I stayed pissed for about a solid week before I let it go entirely. I loved him back then. I loved him, and he loved me, and because of that, I could forgive anything. Lying, and cheating, and even a smack across the face because he loved me.
The thing was, I didn’t walk away over the one affair he admitted to having. I left him because when I woke up that morning, only two days before our wedding, I realized I was about to agree to a lifetime of lying, cheating, and jealousy. And I didn’t want that life. So, I left.