In Another Life (8 page)

By the end of the summer, we all agreed I didn’t need to keep my regular schedule, but I could call for appointments if anything was bothering me. It felt like another graduation of sorts, a recognition by my family, my therapist, and most of all myself, that I was stable enough to navigate through life. I was happy and hopeful when I walked out of my therapist’s office and that feeling got even better when I saw Travis waiting for me.

“Hey, stranger,” he said and got up from the hideous orange-and-brown chair in the waiting room.

“Hi!” I walked over and bumped my shoulder against his chest. “What are you doing here?”

“I missed you this week,” he said quietly. It had been his last week at work, and they’d had him training his replacement, which meant a lot of overtime, so I hadn’t seen him since the weekend.

I grinned. “I missed you too.”

He draped his arm over my shoulders and led us out of the office. I snuggled close, wrapped my arm around his waist, and felt a bulge in his pocket.

“What’s this?” I asked as I reached in and pulled it out.

“Nothing.”

I looked at the pack of cigarettes in my hand and then up at him. “Since when do you smoke?”

He rolled his eyes. “I don’t really smoke. I just bum one off people now and then when things are stressful at work, and with the week I had, I figured I should buy my own pack,” he said, sounding defensive. “Don’t make a big thing out of it.”

You were right about the smoking.

Anger, panic, and grief hit me in equal measures. I couldn’t talk, couldn’t think. The only thing I could do was tremble.

“What’s wrong?” he said.

I didn’t answer. I just put one foot in the front of the other, walked to the trash can in the hallway, and said, “Smoking’s bad for you.” Then I tossed his cigarettes inside.

“Hey!” he said incredulously. “What do you think you’re doing?”

I pressed the elevator button, stepped in, and took a deep breath. My voice was mostly steady when I said, “I’m making sure you stay alive until a ripe old age.”

“Those were my smokes,” Travis muttered as he stomped in after me. “Who are you to throw them away?”

This was meant to be.

“I’m the guy who wants to live by your side during that ripe old age.” The elevator opened on the main floor, and I walked out. “I figure that means I have the right to do whatever it takes to get you there.”

“Is that right?” Travis asked as he followed me.

“Yup.” I nodded, took in a deep breath, and then said, “Promise me you’ll stop. No more buying packs. No more bumming any off people. I need you to stop.” I looked into his eyes and hoped he could see how much this meant to me. “Promise me.”

He hesitated for a moment, but then his expression softened and he said, “I promise.”

We walked toward the door, and I squeezed his arm as a thank-you. He nudged my shoulder in response.

“Hey, look at that!” I said as I pointed to the red sign next to the door.

“What?”

“We’re walking into the sunset together.”

He shook his head. “That’s not a sunset, Shy. It’s an exit sign.”

“Same difference.” I held out my hand, palm-side up, and gazed into his eyes.

Travis glanced down at my hand and then looked at my face and smiled as he twined our fingers together.

“I guess it is a sunset.”

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ADVENT CALENDARS

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About the Author

C
ARDENO
C.
—CC to friends—is a hopeless romantic who wants to add a lot of happiness and a few
awww
s into a reader’s day. Writing is a nice break from real life as a corporate type and volunteer worker with gay rights organizations. Cardeno’s stories range from sweet to intense, contemporary to paranormal, long to short, but they always include strong relationships and walks into the happily-ever-after sunset. Cardeno feels that characters write their own stories and just hopes to find enough time to get those stories on the page.

Cardeno’s Home, Family, and Mates series have received awards from Rainbow Awards, the Goodreads M/M Romance Group, and various reviewers. But even more special to CC are heartfelt reactions from readers, like, “You bring joy and love and make it part of the everyday.”

You can learn more about Cardeno’s writing at http://www.cardenoc.com/.

By
CARDENO C
.

THE MATES SERIES

Until Forever Comes

Wake Me Up Inside

THE HOME SERIES

He Completes Me

Home Again

Just What the Truth Is

Love at First Sight

The One Who Saves Me

Where He Ends and I Begin

THE FAMILY SERIES

Something in the Way He Needs

Strong Enough

More Than Everything

OTHER TITLES

Eight Days

In Another Life

Places in Time

A Shot at Forgiveness

Published by DREAMSPINNER PRESS

http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com

Also by CARDENO C.