“Mama’s investor, Alec, is going through a divorce?—”
“So?”
“—and he’s been dating a new guy for a few weeks and kept it quiet.”
“Good for him.”
“No, not good for him. Or for you.”
I frowned. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“He got our moms’ blessing to bring a date to the Catskills next week.”
“Hudson, I swear to God?—”
“It’s Peter.”
My heart stopped.
For a long moment, all I could do was stare and wait for him to take his words back. Surely I’d misheard.
“That’s not funny,” I said.
“I’m not joking.”
A familiar tightness settled in my chest, the kind I’d been doing a damn good job of ignoring the past few weeks. But oneword, two syllables, was all it took to have me feeling like the ground had opened up and swallowed me again.
“Oh God.” I sat forward, dropping my head between my knees, and Hudson was right there, his hand on my back.
“It’s shit,” he said. “He’sshit.”
“Why would he even want to come? He complained about having to leave the city when I brought up the anniversary the week before. And our moms don’t even like him.”
“Because he’s an asshole with nothing better to do.”
“Why didn’t they tell him no?” I sat up suddenly, feeling a sting in the back of my eyes, but fuck that. I wasn’t wasting another tear on him. “Tell the investor no pricks allowed.”
“Everything’s already been booked.”
“Then unbook it.” I rubbed at my forehead as it began to throb and the realization sank in. Peter had moved on. Of course he had, and of course I was the last one to know. Andof coursehe wanted to rub it in my face at a private-family-and-close-friends-only event. He had no right to be there. He’d left me, for fuck’s sake.
“Sorry to break up a heavy moment,” Leon said through the speaker, “but you’ve got fifteen seconds to air.”
I cursed and nodded, rolling my chair back to the microphone.
“Thanks for the soup,” I told Hudson before putting my headphones back on and taking in a deep breath. I kept my eyes on the screen as the commercial ticked down its last few seconds and tried to push the bad news to the back of my mind for the next two hours.
“I’m Sawyer Montgomery, you’re listening to WZNY 105.7 FM, and we’re back for another hour of hits. But fair warning: if you didn’t like my advice before that ad break, you’re really not going to like what I have to say now.”
2
SAWYER
“YOU’RE SUUUCH A good brotherrr.” I swayed into Hudson as he unlocked my apartment door, and he caught me before I could take us both down, his grip tightening around my arm as he pushed the door open and steered me inside like I was an out-of-alignment shopping cart.
“And this,” he said, kicking the door shut behind us, “is why I don’t like to drink.”
“Boooringgg.”