Love is Always Write Anthology Volume 7

babe. Aw Jaime honey c'mere, don't cry honey."
    Shane felt the bile rising in his throat as he recalled holding onto the phone and hearing Jim Hadrian call his lover…"babe"…"honey". Shane felt the room begin to spin again as he dove down between his knees, grabbing the trashcan beside his desk and vomiting into it what little contents remained in his stomach.
    The phone rang again. Wiping his mouth with the back of his hand he lurched upward to snatch up the offending instrument and threw it across the room. In his grab, he jostled the receiver and heard Margaret telling Ryan that he was unable to take his call right then. Shane snatched up the phone and cried out for Ryan to wait. He was there. He could talk. Margaret responded that she would put the call through and Shane waited as the clicks and whirs on the line indicated that the call was being redirected. Then he heard his best friend's voice…
    "Shane, are you there?"
    Silence. Shane could barely breathe let alone speak. Raw emotion clogged his throat and made it impossible to utter a word.
    "Shane, I know you're there. I can hear you breathing. Look you don't have to talk, just listen, okay? Jaime asked me to call you. He's worried about you. He's been trying to get a hold of you for the last 3 days. You haven't been taking his calls and there's something wrong with your cell phone."
    Shane vaguely remembered pieces of the cell sliding under his bed. He had yet to replace the broken phone. In addition, guilt now rose in him as he recalled telling Margaret to hold all his calls until further notice. The only reason Dexham had managed to get through the iron curtain of silence that he had invoked was because the man had threatened to pull his account entirely and Margaret felt Shane should know before his business crumbled around his ears much as his private life was now doing. Ryan continued to talk and Shane forced himself to listen.
    "…he doesn't want to move out Shane but you've given him no choice. And that bastard Hadrian is happily picking up the pieces…moving in on your man…taking advantage…fucking knight in shining armor…"
    Shane shook his head trying to make sense of what he was hearing. He kept losing the thread of the conversation, each new piece hitting him like a fist to his stomach. His head was spinning again. Finally shaking his head to try and clear it, he gasped and moaned into the phone, "Stop…Jesus, Ryan stop. I can't hear you…I'm not understanding you…I'm so lost…so fucking lost…"
    Ryan swore into the phone.
    "That's it. You stay right there! Do you hear me? I'm coming over. I'll be there in 10 minutes. Do you hear me Shane? I said to stay there, I'm coming over."
    Shane nodded his head and hung up the phone. He slid off his chair and landed in a heap on the floor. He was going to be sick again. And he was so tired…so very tired.
    Hours later Shane woke up to the smell of coffee and the sound of soft jazz filtering in under his bedroom door. He sat up and tried to remember exactly how he had gotten from his office to his condo but couldn't seem to remember anything beyond the phone call from Ryan…Ryan? Ryan had called him. Had said that he was coming over, that he was going to help him. Shane heard the bedroom door open and looked up to see the concerned face of his best friend. Ryan was holding a tray laden with coffee, toast and eggs. He put the tray on the bedside table and sat on the corner of the bed.
    "Sleeping beauty awakes!"
    Shane smiled at the familiar nickname that Ryan had bestowed on him so many years ago when Shane would sleep large portions of the day away after marathon drinking parties. Of course, that was all before he had met Jaime…Jaime who had made him want to be a better man. Jaime…who was leaving him…moving
    "Out! Jaime's moving out. And that bastard Jim…he's moving in with that bastard Jim."
    "That's right! So what are you going to do about it?"
    Shane looked confused for a moment. "Do about it? What do you mean? Didn't you just hear me? He's moving out, Ryan. Moving in with another man! He's taking his shit and leaving me! There's nothing I can do! Its over!"
    "Bullshit! The Shane McAllister I knew would have plenty to do about it!"
    "The Shane McAllister you knew is dead—died the night he found his lover practically being given a blowjob by his boss!"
    "But you didn't see Hadrian giving him a blowjob did you, Shane?"
    "Well no, not exactly. But,"
    "No buts! You didn't see