I had texted my brother, too, trying to figure out what the hell happened last night. It was unbelievably stupid—he could have been badly hurt or arrested. And Kael was nearly assaulted by the MPs, and risked ruining his good standing and discharge plans. I needed to make sense of why Austin had gotten himself in that situation over this girl. It was so stupid. I could barely stand it. I thought about going by my dad’s and dragging my brother out of the house to interrogate him—but now that Kael was asking about dinner, I decided I’d much rather spend the evening with him than with my brother or alone with a frozen pizza and a half-bottle of wine.

Austin
I’ll come by tonight. If you want, come get me.

Kael
How late will you be there?

I was excited to read another text from Kael during my shift, but now disappointed to see that Austin wanted to come over for the evening. I was scheduled to work until four, but I would slip out an hour early if I didn’t have a walk-in by three. Maybe I would have time to see Austin before having dinner with Kael.

Kael texted that he wouldn’t be finished with all of his meetings until after five anyway. I invited him to come over around six thirty p.m., and offered to buy him dinner to even out his paying for my food the last time. I didn’t have money for much, but we could order in something tonight, and the next time I got paid, I could take him to a nicer place. Next time. The words sent a shiver of a warning through me. I really, really needed to stay in the present with Kael, or we wouldn’t fit anywhere at all. There was no future and I doubted I would ever see him again after his discharge and the arrival of Elodie’s baby. Phillip would be home and everything would go back to the way it was. I would be alone in my house again.

While waiting for my next client to undress and get comfortable before their treatment, I texted my brother to confirm that we needed to talk and that he’d better not fucking flake on me. I was more tired today than usual. I hadn’t slept very well after Kael dropped me off. For some reason, I lay in bed thinking only of the shitty things in my life. I didn’t have a typical family, or a loving boyfriend. I didn’t have Instagram-worthy brunches with a big group of girlfriends. Not that I even really wanted that, but the option had never presented itself. But what I did have, for now, was Kael, and I started to reread his texts when I saw one from Austin letting me know that he got a ride and was on his way over to my house.