Chapter Forty One

And suddenly a happy memory turned into a horrifying reality. Roth did not know why but his stomach flipped at the thought of some other man kissing Tristan and touching him. He shuddered, but as much as he tried to push that thought away from his mind, it was the reality.

Roth had to distract himself. He pulled out his phone and began scrolling through Tristan’s pictures in his phone, each photo bringing back a different memory.

X-X-X-X

Tristan was struggling to go to sleep on Wednesday night - or rather struggling was the wrong word, because he was not even trying. It was his birthday the next day, Oliver had asked him to come over to his apartment but he was not yet home.

Tristan had started to receive birthday wishes two hours before midnight from his family in different timezones, as he read everyone’s messages with a somber smile, texting out Thank Yous to some people.

He could not help but mentally travel back to the time when he used to celebrate his birthday with Roth and