A Hard Habit To Break by Kc Kendricks

Author:Kc Kendricks [Kendricks, Kc]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Amber Quill Press, LLC
Published: 2012-09-08T04:29:32+00:00

* * * *

Sunday dinner had the familiarity of something lived through hundreds of times and the unsettling newness of recent distance. My Pop's dark hair was gunmetal gray and a bit thinner. Everything about my folks was a little thinner. They'd taken up golf. When I laughed, delighted they'd found such a passion, the years spent in California vanished as if I'd never been gone. When Pop offered to teach me the game, I agreed. It would be good to spend time with him and get to know him again through more mature eyes.

To my relief, they didn't pry into my personal life, at least not too far. No one mentioned Travis, but Mom did ask how Dani felt at being left behind. She looked pensive when I said Dani was simply a friend who'd needed a spare bedroom and a bit of a helping hand, and didn't pursue the subject. The afternoon flew by, and in what seemed like minutes, I had to make my excuses and leave. I really did have to get ready to go back to work tomorrow morning.

I had a meeting with representatives of the city council scheduled at nine o'clock. I'd also promised the fellow I'd met yesterday at the City Greens jobsite that I'd come by his business and give him some information about the possible installation of a few solar collectors on his roof. In the afternoon, I had a teleconference with my boss.

And Travis waited, a speed dial button away.

Guilt is a strange thing and thanks to a fine, middle-class upbringing, I had a good dose of it. It took willpower I didn't know I had to keep my cell phone in my pocket until I was around the corner and out of my parents' sight. I pulled over and called Travis. When he answered, I gave up guilt for unease. He was at Frolic, waiting for me in the Cancun Bar.

Did Travis have a drinking problem? While I spent the afternoon with my folks, had he spent the last several hours at the bar, drink in hand? The fellow I'd met the other night said Travis was at Frolic every Friday night, but didn't pay special attention to most of the clientele. Did he find alcohol more attractive than sex? I took a deep breath and looked inside myself to the root of my concern.

My senior year of college had been a personal hell. Having my first male lover wasn't a joyous moment of self-discovery. I spiraled down into an emotional black pit and stayed there for several months, grieving that I wasn't with the man I really wanted. Consuming great quantities of booze only exacerbated my depression. Landing the job at Solaray before graduation had impelled me to clean up my act and stay sober. I prayed Travis was just hanging out at the club to have people around him, and not to drink to excess.

His fancy car sat parked in a different spot just outside the door, so he had been somewhere else.

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