Kept Man: Firsts and Forever Stories

It was incredibly jarring when the doorbell rang, followed by knocking loud enough to be heard on the second floor. Micah’s expression hardened into a scowl, and he climbed out of bed and muttered, “I swear to god, if that’s Boseman doing a surprise inspection so soon after our visit, I’m going to cuss him out.”

“You really shouldn’t.”

He said, “I know. I’m doing it anyway,” as he marched out of the bedroom.

I followed but hung back on the stairs as he strode across the foyer and threw open the front door. But it wasn’t Boseman standing there. The identity of the tall, handsome man in a suit dawned on me just as Micah blurted, “What the fuck are you doing here, Arlen?”

His brother chuckled as he stepped inside and appraised Micah from head to toe. “Jesus, look at you,” he said, in a haughty tone. “Wearing an ankle monitor like a common criminal. That’s low even for you, Micah.”

Micah’s voice was a low growl. “I asked what the fuck you’re doing here.”

“My wife’s best friend lives in San Francisco, and she celebrated her fortieth this past weekend. Monica and I flew in to help her celebrate and decided to make a week of it. We reserved the penthouse suite at the Fairmont and are enjoying some well-deserved R and R.” I rolled my eyes at the way he’d just name-dropped the most expensive hotel room in all of San Francisco. Arlen adjusted the cuffs of his blue suit jacket as he looked around with disgust. “I can’t believe you’re still living in this tacky monstrosity, but then you always had terrible taste.”

“I don’t give a fuck why you’re in this city,” Micah snapped. “Why are you here, in my house?”

Arlen returned his gaze to his brother and frowned. “My agent told me you’d reached out, so I thought maybe you were ready to apologize.”

“You’re the one who needs to apologize, and I sure as hell didn’t reach out to you!”

Arlen sighed. “I was hoping you’d changed after all this time, but you haven’t. Not even a little. You have no control over your life,” he gestured at the anklet, “and apparently you have no control over your people, either. Your publicist—who’s doing a bang-up job, by the way, given your recent press—called my agent last week and said you wanted to get in touch. Are you claiming you knew nothing about that?”

“No, and I’m firing her as soon as you leave.”

“I should have known. As if you’d actually be man enough to take some responsibility and apologize to me.” With that, Arlen turned and left.

Micah closed the door, and then he slumped against it and exhaled slowly. His hands were shaking when he straightened up and pushed his hair out of his face. Then he squared his shoulders and started to head to his office, and I called, “Wait.”

“Not right now, Jasper. I need a minute.”

“Don’t fire Willa. It’s not her fault.”

He turned to look at me. “Then whose fault is it?”

“Mine, I think.” I joined him in the foyer and said, “I, um, I asked for Arlen’s contact information when I was talking to Willa the other day. I told her specifically not to call anyone, but I guess she did anyway.”

He looked surprised. “Why would you do that?”

“I wanted you to have a way of getting in touch with your brother. I don’t know why she didn’t just leave it at that.”

“Because the moment anyone even suspects a reconciliation between the two of us might be a possibility, they go nuts and start setting wheels in motion. Arlen and I have been offered a fortune to do a televised reunion show, and it would be a huge coup for whoever managed to make it happen. If Willa could take credit, her career would skyrocket.”

“I’m sorry, Micah,” I said. “I just wanted to help.”

When I met his gaze, the pain in his eyes was startling. “How could you go behind my back, Jasper? I trusted you more than I’ve ever trusted anyone.”

“I didn’t go behind your back…exactly.” Oh god, I felt awful.

“Yes, you did. It was one thing to ask for that contact information, and another not to tell me you’d done it.”

“I wanted to wait until the time was right to bring it up,” I said. “I didn’t know how to approach the subject of getting you to reach out to Arlen, because I knew you’d be upset.”

“That’s the thing, you knew I’d be upset, but you did it anyway.” I turned my gaze to the floor, and he told me, “This was none of your business, Jasper. If I wanted to get in touch with him, it would have taken me two minutes to get his contact information. Now, because of you, he showed up here and saw me like this.” He gestured at his anklet. “Do you have any idea how humiliating that was for me?”