Episode 1086: Circle The Drain

He’d walked in with the faint hope of getting them back on track, of asking her to go out to dinner or somewhere, anywhere together on a date.

He knew one date wouldn’t cut it. It wouldn’t fix his marriage but maybe it would be some kind of start. If it was just the two them… But. It. Wasn’t.

When he’d entered the bookstore he hadn’t seen her. That wasn’t all that unusual. He’d figured she was stocking a shelf or creating a display. He’d craned his neck in search of her, feeling borderline good to at least do something proactive even if he hadn’t been sure she’d agree to go anywhere, at least he was trying instead of just moping and hoping.

But suddenly moping and hoping seemed like good times in comparison to what was right in front of him.

It was by chance really, when she wasn’t standing behind the cash desk he’d had no reason to glance behind him after passing by it. He should have kept walking, believing she was in the storeroom or behind a shelf somewhere. He shouldn’t have seen her snuggled up to Xavier, her head leaning comfortably on his shoulder.

In a heartbeat it seemed like he went from devastated to justifying and back to devastated.

His first thought was our marriage is over, you don’t look that at home with someone unless…

But just as quickly he thought, well, they’re friends, just like Sebastian and Lila leaned on each other sometimes and put their arms around each other sometimes, that’s what being there for a friend looks like. Ava had said she wanted to be a friend to Xavier because he hardly had anyone.

But Xavier had her now. That thought flashed through Sebastian like lightning, leaving a trail of fire that he couldn’t put out no matter how many excuses popped into his head, none overrode the truth.

“That’s it then,” he mumbled. Quiet and muddled as as they were, his words were enough to alert them that they were not as alone as they surely wanted to be.

Xavier’s head turned only briefly to Sebastian before his attention went straight back to Ava, his concern all for her.

Avalon had the decency to appear horrified by what she’d done or at least horrified that she’d been caught. Tears sprang to her already red-rimmed eyes.

“Sebastian,” she said.

She scrambled to her feet. Her movement unlocked his own. Finally his legs listened to what his heart begged them to do, to get him out of there, spare him a minute more of this. This hurt. Nothing could possible hurt more than this, than losing her.

Emotionally, nothing could inflict more pain on him. But physically when Sebastian crossed the street, when he was too distraught to even look to see if the approaching car would stop for the crosswalk, physically, the pain that hit him almost matched his heartache, almost.

Episode 1087: Hysteria