Get To Him

LEONARD:

I couldn’t believe I was willing to hear him out. Maybe I needed a conviction. Except I wasn’t sure why. Because no matter what he said, it wouldn’t make him a real woman. I still wouldn’t own him.

“Talk then,” I repeated when he said nothing but sob.

“I didn’t mean to lie to you. To deceive you. It was a callous thing to do. I’m sorry.”

“That’s it?” I asked after a few seconds of silence.

“I…” He clasped his fingers together. “I was supposed to disappear before you found out about us. You weren’t meant to know. But the mission kept taking wild turns, forcing me to stay.”

“What mission?”

“About Erica and me. About our birth history.”

“What about it?”

“We…are biologically related.”

Shit. They’re twins. Identically created.

Not that I hadn’t suspected Lucia might be Erica’s sibling…but hearing it confirmed still disappointed me. I truly disliked the Gerux family. And now that I…

Wait. What? What the hell was that impossible thought?

“Leonard…”

“What’s your name?”

I already knew it. I simply needed a way out of the thing that made me most angry.

“Eric.”

There was no way out.

He was a man. A Gerux by blood. And worse—he had a history with Bernard. The last part…that’s what fumed me the most. That the man my best friend spoke about with so much life in his eyes was the same one standing before me.

“Did you ever plan to tell me?” I asked. “Or was leading me on to the end part of the fun?”

“Leo,” my name broke from his lips with a heavy sob. “Forgive me...”

“I asked you a damn question! Was toying with my emotions also a game?!”

“No!” he cried, shaking his head. “It wasn’t. I just couldn’t. I couldn’t stand in front of you like this.”

“And here you are…Eric. What difference does it make?”

“I…I knew you’d only want to see Lucia, not Eric. I couldn’t risk it.”

“But you could with my friend!”

His sob cut off. His throat tightened. His eyes quivered as they lifted to meet mine.

“What?” I pressed. “Are you going to lie about that, too? Tell me you didn’t know he was my friend until now? Convince me.”

“I didn’t know…”

“Shut the fvck up!” I yelled, pushing a glass chair to the floor. It shattered. He flinched, eyes shut, body trembling.

That wasn’t me. I don’t lose control like this. I’ve never been ruled by emotions. But it was no longer a denial; among all the truths today, his thing with Bernard was the one breaking me apart.

“You didn’t know? Until when? Until he came for dinner? And yet you ran back to him the same night. You left me worried and went straight to him!”

“I wanted to…”

“To tend to him? Because you couldn’t stand that he saw you with me?”

“No, no. It wasn’t like that. I went to deal with my images on his phone. I feared he would do something. I didn’t want to lose you.”

“Was that the only thing you did during those four days with him?”

God. Boldly asking this? Was I really this shallow?

He understood my curiosity. His eyes widened, guilt flashing clear. My heart shattered completely.

I might have believed he truly only realised Bernard was my friend after dinner. But the guilt in his eyes confirmed what I feared: he’d slept with him during those days.

“Get out,” I said, low and threatening.

“Leo…please.”

We both turned to the door. The lock beeped as the passcode clicked, and the nerd burst in, frying pan in hand, panting like he’d run all the way here.

I wasn’t surprised. He knew my passcode. He tapped into my surveillance. Seeing him here only confirmed it. He’d watched everything and had come to save his friend.

Hold on—

I scanned him. His pan. His face. It clicked.

Eric was his date from that day.

“Are you two?” I asked before I could stop myself.

“No. He’s not gay.”

I didn’t ask for the details. “I’m not either,” I whispered, though I wanted to scream it.

Eric stepped closer. I stepped away, striding toward the stairs. I turned to the nerd.

“I could have you locked up for your crimes. I won’t because I don’t ever want to see your faces again. But if you’re still in Sierra by nightfall tomorrow, I will make you pay for more than you’ve caused me.

I turned to Eric. “That’s a promise.”

*************

The security company arrived faster than horses. In less than ten minutes, the surveillance was cleansed of Lucas. Freshly reinstalled, tightened. The door rebranded. Passcode changed.

Erica wasn’t spared. I threw her things out to Eric and his friend and ordered them all gone. The supposed wedding was called off. By the time I hung up with the ‘Fresh and Tasty’ blog, the news was already circulating nationwide like a pandemic…just as I wanted.

“What are you going to do?” Jimmy asked, slipping deeper into sadness than me.

He’d arrived minutes after the article was published. He hadn’t noticed I left the office until the news. I didn’t tell him I was leaving either. I was too frayed to announce it.

“I have done it,” I said, downing vodka.

We sat on the stools at the kitchen counter, the food mess still on the floor behind us.

Jimmy had a lot to say, but no idea where to start. Neither did I.

We were still drinking in silence when a knock came. Jimmy went for the door. Bernard walked in.

Bernard had rushed in because of the wedding news. He didn’t know the full story. How could I call to tell him? How could I say Lucia was Eric?

He never suspected they were the same person. He had only believed they were another universe's wonder. If only he knew that my Lucia had been the same Eric lying in his bed.

“What’s the fuss about?” he asked, staring at the wrecked kitchen. I knew he meant the wedding. “If Erica is out, doesn’t that bring Lucia in?”

Jimmy and I exchanged a glance—his eyes nervous, mine…empty.

I grabbed the vodka bottle, refilled my glass, and drank. I was about to pour again when Jimmy caught my wrist.

“This is serious,” Bernard muttered, sliding onto the stool beside me, putting me between them as always.

It’s always like this—me in the middle, the one with the problem, the heartache. The one needing consoling, babysitting.

“Someone tell me what’s going on?”

Jimmy puffed. For once, he wasn’t eager to speak for me. For once, he gave me space to tell my own story.

“Jim? Leo?”

“Lucia is Erica’s twin,” Jimmy finally broke the silence, starting with the smoothest part.

“Isn’t that great news?“ Bernard asked, leaning in. “Don’t we want her to be?”

Jimmy just sighed and poured himself a drink instead of answering.

“Leo,” Ben turned to me when Jimmy fell silent. “Is this about disliking the Gerux family?”

Then his phone buzzed loudly. His eyes stayed on me as he pulled it out. The second he read the message, his face drained.

“Eric?!” he whispered, the shout dying in his throat.

Jimmy and I stared. Frozen, Bernard didn’t move. Jimmy snatched the phone.

“What the hell?!”

He shoved it at me.

And there it was—the image of Eric and Erica, captured together as they left my house. The headline screamed across the screen:

‘Gay Billionaire Leonard Hays Calls Off Marriage After Falling in Love with Ex-fiancée’s Male Doppelganger.’

Shit.

Eric.

I was on my feet before I even realised it.

He was in trouble. If his identity was already exposed, then more was bound to follow. Reporters would swarm his apartment, cameras flashing, questions flying. And Eric…he couldn’t handle that kind of ambush.

My eyes landed on Bernard’s car keys resting on the kitchen counter. I seized them without asking. I wasn’t entirely sure what I was doing or where this would lead, but one thing was certain…I had to get to Eric before the reporters did.