Kyle doesn’t say a word.
“Have you cheated on me?” Cato asks.
Kyle nods. “Yeah.”
Cato flinches but keeps his head up. “How many times?”
“You won’t like the answer.”
Cato looks around the bar, spotting a pitcher of water. He grabs it and proceeds to dump the contents on Kyle, who jumps off the stool, gasping as he’s covered in ice and water.
“What the fuck!”
“You piece of shit. I devoted myself to you. Why not just break up with me? Why cheat?”
Kyle glares at Cato. “It just seemed easier. I didn’t want to hurt you.”
“You didn’t want to hurt me?” Cato’s voice is near shrieking at this point. He grabs the fruit tray I use for garnishes and dumps that on Kyle too. Then he snatches the peanuts and tosses those as well. And because I’m not down with cheaters, I hand him a carafe of orange juice. He takes it and douses Kyle once more.
“Enough,” Kyle yells, trying to brush food and liquid off his clothes. “I’m sorry, okay. It wasn’t right, but I felt trapped.”
Cato is seething. “Trapped?”
“You’re a great guy. On paper, it works. I’m just…not monogamous.”
“That would’ve been great information to share two years ago.” He rubs his forehead. “I can’t believe you would hit on the bartender right under my nose. That is disgusting. No offense,” he says to me.
“None taken.”
Cato sets his jaw. “You have approximately fifteen minutes to get your shit out of my room and get out of my face.”
“Why should I leave? I paid for the room too.”
“Are you even serious right now?”
Kyle glances around the bar at all the eyes watching this crap show go down.
“Dude, you should go,” I whisper.
Kyle glares at me. “I’ll leave, but you should know something.”
Cato continues to seethe.
“If you’d taken your head out of the clouds and your business for ten minutes, you might have noticed us drifting apart before it came to this.”
I’m impressed by the stoic demeanor Cato takes on. “If that’s your excuse for cheating, it’s a weak one. If you were a real man and a decent person, you would’ve confronted me. Not found another dick to suck. You make me sick.” He sticks out his hand.“I’ll take my extra apartment key too. Anything of yours that’s at my place, I’ll arrange to have sent back.”
Kyle reaches into his pocket, pulls out his keys, and after removing one, gives it to Cato. After grabbing his computer, he starts to walk off, but Cato calls his name.
“Did you ever love me?”
Kyle glances at the floor then back up again. “I think so. I guess I just wasn’t ready.”
He walks off, leaving a devastated Cato standing in front of me, shell-shocked. I do what any bartender worth his weight would and pour him a drink.
“On the house.”
He looks at it, grabs it, and slams it back, cringing as he swallows the tequila.