“I didn’t become this way because of you,” Eli said. “But you’re the reason I stopped pretending to be anything else.”
Dominic’s face had gone pale.
“Why are you telling me this?” he asked, voice low.
“Because I need you to stop pretending you’re the only one who’s scared.”
Dominic didn’t speak for a long time.
Then, finally, he leaned against the wall and rubbed both hands over his face.
“Jesus, Eli.”
Dominic looked at him.
And Eli saw it again, that war in his eyes. The line he kept trying to redraw after they’d already crossed it.
“This wasn’t supposed to happen,” Dominic said.
Eli took a step closer.
“No,” he said. “But it did. Multiple times. And now you have to decide if you're going to stay in the past or live in this.”
Dominic stared at him. “You make it sound easy.”
“It’s not,” Eli said. “But it’s honest.”
Then he leaned in and kissed him.
Slow. Fierce. Mouth open. Hands shaking.
And Dominic let him.
They didn’t fuck in the garage that night.
They didn’t even go to Dominic’s
