Page 34 of Trading Places

I walk over to the couch. I sit down next to him and grab his hand. My hand trembles as I stroke his. “I am.” I look him in the eyes cause he’s the last person I can lie to.

Anthony takes a deep breath, and he clears his throat. “Did he fuck you?”

“Yeah,” I say, chewing at my bottom lip.

“You promised me you wouldn’t cross that line,” Anthony says, snatching his hand away as if I burned him.

I run my hands down my leggings, but my eyes follow him. He paces in front of me. This isn’t how I wanted to have this conversation with him.

My heart aches, and I’ve already been crying all day. I never wanted my whole world to crumble around me. The absolute last thing I wanted to do was hurt, Anthony.

“I tried my best not to, but I can’t shake Drey. I’m sorry.”

Anthony speaks. “I’m ending the engagement.”

I lift my head, and my jaw drops. “Why? Maybe we can work something out.”

“No.”

“We had an agreement.”

“That you fucking broke. So much for this lavender marriage,” he sighs. He sits down next to me.

This is the one secret I’ve been hiding from everyone. I didn’t even tell Kye, she just knew I could fuck other people. Which is why I didn’t need Montrell finding out.

It’s one of the many reasons I fell in love with pegging. I didn’t want to risk the chance of getting pregnant, but in the process I found myself enjoying it too much.

Our arrangement is simple. A plan we came up with a year ago. Anthony does his thing, and I do the same. We had a pact to protect his secret because his family was on his back heavy about marriage. Marrying a guy wasn’t even an option.

“I know… but will we really be happy if we’re both pretending. I’m sure your boyfriend is tired of this.”

“He’s fine with it. We had everything planned, but you know it’s not even the fact that you fell for him.”

I stare at him, confused. “What? What is it then?”

“It’s what your parents said. I heard everything. I’m no one’s retirement plan. All of this over property? I had no idea my parents did that.”

I wipe my eyes. “You heard everything?”

“You damn fucking right. I left my phone to record everything.” He pulls out his phone. Playing the audio for me.

I cover my mouth.

Fuck.

He knows everything, and I can hear my parents talking about everything. “Oh shit.”

“I appreciate you not sharing my secret.” Anthony pulls me into a hug. He strokes my back.

I sit there with my heart pounding, thinking about what the fuck this means.

I could’ve easily told my parents about his sexuality. But I couldn’t cross him like that. I wasn’t going to let Drey lay a finger on him either.

It’s not my secret to share. I was the first person he came out to when we were nine, and I hugged him. Told him I loved him the way he was, and we went back to playing.

“You’re my best friend. You mean everything to me. I love you too much to hurt you.”

“So… if you’re with Drey… does that mean?” Anthony smirks at me.