Mr. Beautiful (Up in the Air 4)

COMING OUT

PAST

I was in the hospital when I got the text.  It was from a strange number, and so I didn't even look at it at first.

James and I were taking turns sitting vigil with Bianca, who'd been brutally attacked just days before.

Sometimes we flanked her, each taking a hand, because neither of us could stand to be far from her when she was so obviously in need, but a lot of times, like now, the nurse needed to check in on her, and one of us had to move out of the way so she could.

This time, I had stepped away from her.  It was hard to do, but I knew it was necessary.  I had to learn to share her now, as much as that went against the grain of the complexity that was my relationship with Bianca.

I was in a bad place, though not because of that.  It was the attack that had me in a dark state—the fact that someone had hurt Bianca.

The last few days were an awful blur.  The nightmare of finding her sprawled out on her floor, beaten unconscious.  I'd called an ambulance, and just as I was getting in my car to follow it to the hospital, James had pulled up, looking distraught as he saw her being pulled away.

We'd ridden together, followed her here, gone through the ordeal of uncovering all the damage that'd been done to her together.  It was a toss-up which one of us was more messed up about it.

I couldn't believe what had happened, and how I had failed to protect her.  I'd been just minutes too late.

I knew James felt the same.  We were bonding, in a way, over it—a shared, impotent self-loathing over how this impossible thing never should have happened.

I checked my phone again as I paced outside her room, more to pass the time than anything else.  I went through all of my other texts before I checked the one from the unknown number.

It's Javier.  New number.  I just wanted to make sure u r ok.  I heard about Bianca.  Is she ok?

That had my heart pumping faster. I programmed his new number into my phone.

He hadn't contacted me in so long.  And here he was, actually being nice to me, actually asking how I was.

I tried not to let that make me too hopeful.

STEPHAN:  I'm ok.  She's in rough shape, but she's going to be fine.

His response was near instant.

JAVIER:  Thank God!  Ty for getting back to me.  I've been so worried.  I can't believe she was attacked.  Sending prayers and much