His short-lived relief was interrupted by a rich and jovial voice, “Family problems?” He lifted his head to see who the voice belonged to. He was greeted by the sight of a man handsome enough to be a male model. His teutonic-gold hair currently in a casual jumble and a morning shadow stubble. His crescent-of-moon eyebrows were thin and narrow, he carried an imperious nose well and his angular cheekbones carved down towards a flinty jaw.Tristan had rarely seen such beautiful men, but then again, he had never had eyes for anyone besides Roth anyway. There was something about this man that made Tristan smile at him, somberly however. x - x - x“Sir, can I speak to you alone for a while?” They had gotten the tests done and required reports on an urgent basis, which took more money, but money had never been a problem for Roth Dimitri - so now his temporary personal medical attendant was standing before him and Eleanor in the waiting cubicle and asking to talk to him alone. Roth and El
The five-hour flight ended with Tristan and Oliver having exchanged numbers and life stories. As it turned out, Oliver had been in Las Vegas to solve some property dispute caused by his father after his rich mother had just passed away.Although Tristan exchanged his number with him, he knew that it was useless because there was no chance they could meet again. Oliver lived way upstate, and they seemed to have no mutual hobbies as Oliver was a billionaire architect, who spent most of his time in his office on his designs. He was about to be proven very wrong. Tristan had called an Uber instead of calling his chauffeur, and he was now driving to his home. He thought of calling Roth or Eleanor first but his phone had died on him and he had been so busy on the plane that he had forgotten to charge it. x - x - xThe beep from the intercom broke the silence in the room, as Roth picked it up clearing his throat, “Yes?”The voice on the other end was loud enough to reach Eleanor, “Sir, Mr.
Tristan stared at him in disbelief, “Roth, I don’t know how to tell you this but you really were into it! You might not remember but you were enjoying it.”“It does not make it any right!” Roth snapped, which made Tristan flinched. “You raped me, Tristan! You broke my trust …”Tristan clutched Roth by his arm “For the last time, please stop using that word! I did not rape you - if I had felt that I was hurting you, I would have stopped. And I know you won’t believe me, but I did not drug you for this. I drugged you to get you out of meeting with that stupid bar girl.”Roth jerked himself out of Tristan’s grip and screamed, “If you had felt you were hurting me? Did you have time to care what I was feeling or were you too overcome by stupid lust. And what a fine way to protect me by drugging me!” His voice got sarcastic at the end, as Tristan stared at him in disbelief. Tristan slowly shook his head and tears filled up his eyes and he pleadingly said, “I am sorry, Roth, I don’t know wh
In that moment, Tristan knew that he could not bear the look of strangeness in the eyes of the person, whom he had spent an eternity loving - a person with whom he had all of his best memories and dreams attached. This person and this mansion was where he had spent the best days of his life, he had never thought that someday that person and that mansion would stop feeling like home, but he knew that now that it had, it was time to walk out.Still unable to form words, he slowly shook his head, feeling a ball of tears erupting in his throat as he took in Roth one last time completely, and the sight of the mansion, who knew if he would ever be back there again. And then, Tristan took a deep breath, taking in the smell of the mansion combined with a muffled scent of Roth’s cologne one last time and stepped out of the living room, as Roth stared at his back behind him with his eyebrows knitted together. x - x - xTristan pulled out his phone from the pocket of his coat and a visiting c
Roth walked over to Tristan’s bed, where the lingering smell of Tristan’s cologne hung over the sheets. Involuntarily, Roth took a deep breath in, inhaling the smell he had been so used to that he had never noticed until now when it hit his nostrils after so long of not smelling it. He crumpled down next to Tristan’s bed, letting his head rest on the foot of his bed, as his fist clenched around the fabric of the sheets. He had not had time to rest or process the whole thing since the previous night. The soft smell of Tristan from the sheets brought it back to Roth. They undoubtedly had had fun before Tristan had decided to spoil their vacation. Roth didn’t know when his mind lulled him to sleep as he let it wander to the neon museum that Tristan had taken him to in Las Vegas. x - x - xEleanor had stayed up the whole night with Tristan, who had seemed to have lost track of time as he reminisced about the amazing vacation they had had before the last day when everything collapsed,
Tristan could tell that Roth’s voice was on the verge of breaking. Tears formed in his own eyes as he recalled all the weekends he woke up early to cook something for Roth. Eleanor looked at Tristan questioningly as to what to say to Roth. Tristan met her gaze and lightly nodded. True that Tristan needed her, but Roth needed her more at the moment. He heard Eleanor tell Roth that she would be there soon before hanging up. “I am sorry. Are you sure, though?” She now kneeled beside Tristan, looking into eyes apologetically. “Yeah, I also need to see to my living arrangements, besides I think I would really prefer some time alone,” Tristan lied but he could tell from the sympathetic look in her eyes that she did not believe him. Still she nodded, “Okay then, I will drop you wherever you want to be dropped on the way.” “No, I had brought my chauffeur along. Thank you though, Eleanor, for everything. I will meet you soon again,” Tristan lightly nodded at her before stepping towards th
“Tristan?” Oliver walked towards him looking pleasantly surprised, as intrigued gazes followed him from across the dining hall. As people saw the newcomer he was greeting, murmurs began to rise from the hall. Roth was the talk of the town, especially after his recent scandal, and many of his flings with famous supermodels. As a result of living with him and being his close side friend, Tristan was exposed to a fair amount of social attention too if not equal parts. Tristan tried to ignore the rising murmurs, from which he could only pick up a few words like Dimitri and bar, but they were enough to give him an idea of what the murmurs were about, and maintained his look of astonishment at spotting Oliver in the least expected places of all. Minutes later, they were seated around the couples’ table that Oliver had been dining on earlier, when after the routine greetings, Tristan finally asked the question that had been in his mind for a while, “How come are you here for breakfast? I
Tristan did not know what to say. Roth was not his best friend, Roth was once the love of his life, Roth was his house mate, Roth was the person whose face he saw the first thing in the morning every day, Roth was his show partner, Roth was his co-worker, Roth was his breakfast buddy, Roth was his family. Roth had once been everything to Tristan, yet now he failed to find words to tell Oliver who he was. Oliver sensed his reluctance around the topic, because he cleared his throat with embarrassment, “It’s okay if you don’t want to tell. I understand it would have been a fairly personal question.” Tristan looked up, shaken out of his thoughts. Brought back into reality, he realized that Roth WAS all those things to him, in the past. Now, if Tristan were to be brutally honest to himself, Roth was just his victim and he was Roth’s rapist. He felt a pang of hurt in his chest, unfamiliar to any he had ever experienced, as the reality struck him hard. However blunt Tristan was, he could