Chapter 22

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It was almost four o’clock Friday afternoon when an e-mail popped up from Michael in his work inbox. The subject line read, Leaving early.

The week had gone by surprisingly fast and the job was really easy. He’d seen on the paperwork given to him that Michael had settled on twenty-two an hour. Ridiculously high for what he was doing, but he didn’t mind the work, and the people there were really nice.

Kevin bit his lip and opened the e-mail.

I have a date tonight, so I want to leave early today. Be ready at four-thirty.

For a second, his vision blurred. A date? Michael had a date? He found it hard to catch his breath, and his eyes burned.

Fuck.

Swallowing his pain, Kevin picked up the phone on his desk and called Noah. Last night he’d finally told Noah everything. He’d gotten a big lecture about hiding secrets from his old friend, but Kevin had felt so much better. “Hi, it’s Kevin.”

“Kev? What’s up? You sound different. Are you okay?”