I swallowed and frowned to myself. Did it matter? Our entire breakup had been plagued by his mixed signals. He wanted kids, he sought out other partners in the various kink communities we had in DC, he made long-term plans with me, he clearly became emotionally attached to Franklin, and now, most recently, he claimed he’d never been comfortable with an open relationship…? Yet, the first thing he’d done after we were officially over was to jump into bed with others.
Why the fuck would I consider having a child with someone like that?
Why the fuck was I so stupidly in love with him?
Pulling myself away from those thoughts, I cleared my throat and asked for Franklin’s number. Even though we hadn’t done much, I wanted to check in with him in the morning. I also told him he didn’t have to send me that picture. It was mostly just the heat of the moment.
He let out a humorless chuckle. “It’s probably messed up that I’m disappointed.”
I quirked a brow at him.
He shook his head. “I’m sorry. I’ve made everything so much worse now. You’re supposed to be with Tate. It’s the whole reason I wanted to talk to you. He’s miserable.” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “He’s never going to speak to me again, and I can’t blame him.”
“Hey—don’t be too hard on yourself.” I understood that it was a sensitive situation. What Franklin had done…from Tate’s perspective, yeah, a bit of a douchebag move. But there were limits. “Maybe he’s already told you this, but we had an open relationship.”
He furrowed his brow. “Yes.”
“Within kink,” I said. “Vanilla people were off-limits because if we started fucking around with just anybody, it would no longer be about fulfilling the needs we couldn’t help each other with.”
“But he and I haven’t done anything, Kingsley,” he argued, confused. “I mean that. He’s been a friend. He’s helped me realize my marriage was killing me.”
Yeah, well… “He still felt the need to hide you from me,” I answered. “Because of the open nature of our relationship, we had a one-hundred-percent honesty policy. We were supposed to talk to each other about the people we met.” Fuck, that wasn’t right. “People we formed attachments to,” I amended.
Franklin didn’t get it. I could see it on his face. He didn’t understand the work it took to keep an open relationship stable. The level of trust it required.
“I distinctly remember one of our first conversations that went beyond my daughter’s progress in school,” he replied pensively. “He was feeling low because he thought his boyfriend was about to break up with him.”
I frowned and sat back a little. “And?”
“I’m trying to establish a timeline,” he said. “You broke up twice. Somewhere in that period, he and I formed a friendship that never once crossed any lines.” He flinched. “Until today—when I crossed them all.”
I felt my frown deepen as his words settled.
“Kingsley, I’m wondering if it’s possible you’re focusing on the wrong thing,” he said carefully. “From what I’ve learned about Tate—and how he speaks of you—he would never betray you. And the worst thing he could’ve accomplished with me was to find some sort of support in our friendship. Someone to lean on while he went through losing the love of his life.”
Fuck.
This was too sobering.
I scrubbed a hand over my mouth and jaw, remembering too well that Tate had accused me of needing him to be the bad guy. That I’d used the alleged cheating as an excuse to “forget” all the problems that’d consequently led to our breakup.
Apparently, Franklin wasn’t done. “As someone who just spent twenty-five years in a loveless marriage, I implore you to talk to Tate. I understand you two have some serious problems to solve, but the way you clearly love each other is… I’ve never witnessed anything like it. I saw you going through photos of him when I sat down next to you.”
I side-eyed him. “You’re a li’l sneak, you know that?”
He smiled hesitantly. “But you knew who I was too, didn’t you? Can you forgive me if I forgive you for stalking me when I take my daughter to feed the ducks?”
Well, shit.
So, all along… From the moment he’d sat down, he’d pretended—all while being fully aware that I knew what he looked like as well.
That was mildly embarrassing. I rubbed the back of my neck. “Yep, sounds good to me.”
He chuckled. “When I noticed it was you at the park, I thought for sure you were going to kick my ass. Or confront me at the very least.”
“It crossed my mind a few times…”
“But I’m not a threat,” he promised. “And at the risk of putting my foot in my mouth, it was you I couldn’t resist. For weeks, I’ve heard Tate talk about your dominance and how you’re the type of man who will command a room from a dark corner, how you never feel the need to assert yourself—you just are.”