James woke up with Cora curled into his side, her head on his shoulder, and his arm dead. He grinned down at her face, calm in the morning light. Curly hair a mess. Make up smeared. His heart skipped and he pulled away.

Cora grumbled and rolled to her other side. James waited a moment but she stayed asleep so he left her be. He’d just started the bacon cooking when he heard the shower kick on and he smiled to himself. He loved when she showered here and smelled like him.

Food was just finishing up when soft footsteps came into the kitchen and right up behind him. Damp hair pressed between his shoulder blades as Cora’s arms wrapped around his waist. James leaned back into the embrace as pure want coursed through him. Not want for sex. Want for this to happen every day.

James turned off the stove and turned around in Cora’s arms. “Good morning, sweetheart.” He kissed her smiling lips. I love you. “Breakfast is ready.”

Cora moved to the fridge and poured them drinks while James plated the food. They laughed through breakfast. James’ gaze kept dropping down to her spotted neck. He might’ve gotten a little too ambitious in his efforts to mark her up.

“So, I was thinking that we should tell Wes about us.” Cora’s words froze him with a bite of food halfway to his mouth.

They can’t tell Wes. They can’t. Wes already expressed his rejection for them as a couple. James dropped his fork back onto his plate. “We can’t tell Wes.” The one and only time he’d tried dating, about four months after he’d taken custody of Wes, brought about their biggest fight and Wes’ biggest break down. He refused to do that to him again. “Wes knew about us hooking up that very first time and he’s not ok with it. With us.”

James looked up from his plate in time to see Cora’s face, previously soft and content, go from stricken to completely blank. “You’re right,” she said. “You’re completely right. We started this with an agreement that I would get experience with a guy and you would be protected from Wes finding out.” She smiled a brittle smile at him and stood with her still half full plate.

“Cora…”

“I got what I needed. Thank you.” Her back was to him as she set her plate in the sink. “Thank you for letting me experience everything. It’s time to end this, isn’t it?”

No. “Maybe it’s for the best.” I love you. “If you feel like you’ve gotten everything you wanted from me, then ok.” He swallowed hard against the sudden knot in his throat and dropped his eyes back to his plate. It never could have been forever anyway.

“Right. Yeah.” Silence, uncomfortable in a way it had never been before. “I’m going back home. I’ll see yo- uh, yeah. Bye.” And she was gone. Out of his life.

Not hungry anymore, James scraped his plate into the trash and went about gathering up her stuff. He wanted it to be ready for her when she came to get it. That and he didn’t think he’d be able to see her dresses hanging next to his clothes. Her panties folded next to his boxers. Her make up cluttering up his bathroom countertop.

*~*~*

Two miserable weeks went by. James was used to being alone. Used to sleeping alone. He wasn’t used to being lonely. Even when Corey couldn’t come over, too late of an evening class or too early of a morning the next day, James hadn’t felt lonely. Probably because Corey had sent a fairly regular stream of texts keeping him involved in whatever was going on.

He missed that.

He texted Wes, but it was never very many. He worked more shifts than usual at his bar, but even his regulars didn’t wipe away that cloud of loneliness that was waiting for him at home. A couple even asked what was wrong, so he wasn’t even hiding the fact that he was upset very well.

Wes: Hey. Lunch?

James: Sure. Meet you at Bella’s?

James was there first and put their orders in. Wes joined him right as the waitress set their drinks down. “We should talk.”

James set his drink back down on the table before even taking a drink. His mind went straight to Corey. A part of him worried that Corey had told Wes… A bigger part hoped he had. “What’s wrong?”

“I know you agreed to not sleep with my friend and I appreciate that you’ve kept your distance… But by any chance have you seen Corey in the past two weeks?”

“No. Why? What’s going on?”

Wes heaved a massive sigh and slumped in his seat. “I don’t know man. Corey was doing so good after he went out that first time. He’d said that he wasn’t going to do it again until he graduated but it seemed like it had been enough to just do it the once so I didn’t push him or anything. Then all of a sudden his mood took this big down swing, and I was thinking maybe seasonal depression. Maybe he doesn’t want to go back to his uncle’s for Christmas again. He won’t tell me anything though so I was thinking… I don’t know. It’s stupid.”

“It’s not stupid. I haven’t seen or heard from him in the past two weeks,” James confirmed. His brother just frowned and nodded though.

“He’s been going out partying and drinking more than he ever has before. I was worried he might’ve tried going out without telling me and something bad happened and this is how he decided to cope with it.”

Shitty coping mechanisms. Both of them were familiar enough with that. “I’ll ask my bartenders if they’ve seen him, ok?” He had a couple pictures on his phone of them together. “If they haven’t then they’ll know to keep an eye out for him in case he does come in.”

“Thanks, James.”

“Of course. You know I’d do anything for you.”

Wes grinned at him. “Same here, brother.”

James forced his smile to stay on his face. The conversation moved on to how his studying for finals was going and that was the last he heard about Corey from Wes, but James couldn’t keep Corey from his mind. As soon as he was in his truck he shot off a text.