Freier Fall: A long way to go...

Chapter 66. Choices

66: Choices

Kay / Marc / Jörg

Kay

Like an imbecile, with his gaze, followed the taxi that Marc and Jörg got in. The cold penetrated his bones, but it was what he least cared about; He was disconsolate because far from settled things with Marc, he had made it worse. He didn't know how to fix it; He didn't know if Marc's attitude was due to the break-up or for the fact of having Jörg in his life. Either option offered almost no chance of reconciliation. He could understand how upset Marc was, however, the way Marc had defended Jörg had left him speechless. With a slow and crestfallen step, he returned to his car and stomping the accelerator as a bolide heading to the hotel.

Once he arrived at the hotel, instead of going straight to his room, he stopped his way to the bar. Sitting at the bar, he ordered a scotch and started drinking. After the third drink, he decided to ask the bartender to leave the bottle. As if he wanted to punish himself, he pulled out his phone and looked at the picture of Marc hugging Jörg. He tried to read his look; He didn't know if it was because of how drunk he was, but he thought he saw an empty look behind that smile.

The bartender left the bottle on the bar while asking: "lovesickness?"

Kay looked at him with those intense blue eyes that reflected a deep sadness and nodded with a broken grimace. He wanted to get drunk to see if he could stop feeling that oppression in his chest that tormented him.

Near four in the morning, staggering, he went up to his room. The pain far from lessening, he felt it on the skin. As he arrived, he dropped on the bed while stroking the bracelet that Marc had given to him. It was as if with those caresses, he wanted to exorcise everything bad that was happening to him, and, by magic, Marc returned to him. He didn't know how long he had been looking at the bracelet until an uneasy sleep overcame him.

It was Matthias's birthday party, the child ran between the tables all over the garden, laughing and screaming with other children of the same age; a large tent was arranged in the center of the garden and housed several tables with white tablecloths. Kay was sitting on a shore, which allowed him to have a complete view of everything that was happening. At a table near where he was, he saw Bettina chatting with another woman he didn't recognize and at her side, Bernard, her husband took care of his son who had already begun to take his first steps. Besides them, there were Marc's parents chatting with their son.

From where he was sitting he could see Marc looking at him. Dressed in jeans and a green shirt, he looked extremely attractive and that color of clothes made his eyes stand out even more. Matty came running to where Marc was and hugged him tightly; Marc returned the hug while stroking Matthias's hair and both were laughing; Kay could see the love reflected in Marc's eyes. Suddenly, both father and son turned towards him. Marc looked at him and smiled at him; the feeling of that look flooded him with happiness.

"Play with your dad" -he heard Marc say to Matty without stopping looking at him. He was happy. The boy looked at him and began to run towards him with both arms open while shouting: "daddy, daddy!"

Kay opened his arms to hug him, nevertheless, when Matty reached his side, he ignored Kay, and running shouted: "Daddy let's play!"

Kay followed the boy's path trying to understand what was happening when he saw him. A few meters behind him was Jörg, who was holding Matthias in his arms as the boy laughed and tried to kiss him; Marc looked at them smiling. It was not him he smiled at a few seconds before; it was Jörg ... who in turn was looking fondly at Marc while holding his son in his arms...

He woke up startled, his heart pounding and the unmistakable taste of fear in his mouth. He got up and went straight to the bathroom, with shaking hands, turned on the water tap. He rinsed his face and drank a few sips of cold water while looking at his reflection in the mirror. The dream had been so real that it had left him terrified.