Free In the Silks by Lisa Wilde

to have Pat there. Henry let Pat know that he didn’t need anything. Then he went to take a quick shower before his brother got there. He turned on the computer. He was just about to check his messages when the bell rang.
    “What’s up, little brother?” Pat said with that cheeky smile of his, when Henry opened the door. “Nothing much, what you got there?”
    “I grabbed some beers at the packie and got fish and chips.”
    “Sweet, thanks! Go ahead in the living room, I’ll be right there.” Henry went back into his room to grab his cell phone in case work called.
    He came back down the hallway phone in hand. He froze, almost losing his grip on the phone as he looked to the coffee table and realized that he had left the laptop open. Pat was busy pulling the food out of the brown paper bags; it didn’t appear that he had noticed. Henry hurried over, closed the laptop and tossed it on the side chair. He sat down next to his brother and waited for Pat to say something about it but he didn’t. Henry put the game on and they sat to eat. They really didn’t talk until they had eaten all of their food and drank half a dozen beers. After that most of their conversation was around the game.
    “How’s Tara?” Henry said with a bit of hesitation. He knew he had pissed her off and he was hoping that Pat was not still suffering for it.
    “She’s fine, I guess. Still pissed at you though,” Pat said not taking his eyes off the screen.
    Henry was picking at the label of the bottle with his thumbnail. “Yeah, I figured as much.” Henry had gotten the impression that things were not going so well in his brother’s relationship. Several conversations that he had had with his brother recently had led to that theory but he felt like it wasn’t the right time to bring it up.
    They had a good time. It was just what he needed. Henry was glad that he hadn’t blown his brother off. When the game was over, Pat told Henry he wanted to get home and get some before Tara fell asleep. “She does not like wake up sex,” he told Henry.
    “Then you better move your ass, bro.” Henry laughed and gave Pat a hug before he opened the door to leave.
    “Thanks for the company man. I had a shit day, I needed this.”
    “Anytime.”
    Henry nodded, arms folded across his chest.
    “Maybe next time, you can tell me about your friend Ryan.” With that, Pat turned and walked away. Henry had no chance to say anything because Pat had the phone to his ear telling his wife to stay awake, that we had won the game and he wanted to celebrate with her.
    Not that Henry could have said anything anyway. He had to grab onto the door jamb to steady himself. He felt nauseous, a lump forming in his throat. If it weren’t for that lump, he thought his dinner would have come back up for sure.
    When Pat was out of sight, Henry closed the door and went to the kitchen and got a glass of water. Then to the sofa, grabbing the laptop off the side chair where he had thrown it earlier. He drank the entire glass of water, in an attempt to settle his stomach. Henry pinched the bridge of his nose trying to remember the message. What could Pat have seen or read? It couldn’t have been too bad he thought. It didn’t say ‘remember that guy senior year you almost had sex with? Yeah that was me. I can’t stop thinking about you’ .
    Henry shook it off, relief almost setting in. Almost. But something was off. Why would Pat care if he messaged an old friend from college? It made no sense. As soon as he opened it and started reading, he knew. His stomach started to turn again. This was bad. The browser was open to Ryan’s profile.
    Occupation: Aerial Contortionist
    Current City: Boston
    Relationship Status: In a relationship with Cameron Moore
    Then there was the message.
     
    Ryan: Hi Henry, I do remember you. I’m surprised that you remembered me. We just met that one night and you took off so fast. I can’t believe you remember my last name! Yeah I just moved back