Ross stared at the text messages, even after he’d said goodbye to Tom for the time being.

Fuck. He hadn’t thought about Tom’s job.

The people on the hospital board, the donors, the powerful people who were sure to hear about the scandal, however brief and ridiculous of a scandal it was—those were the same people who were going to be clients, or had been clients, or knew clients, of Adam and Enid’s firm.

People like that could do any number of things when they were disgruntled.

In Ross’s experience, he’d found that once you got to be a certain level of rich, you stopped seeing the world the same way. You stopped treating people the same way. Some of your compassion and ability to empathize went out the window.

It was always a little disturbing to interact with those people at the charity events. It was like he was talking to people who weren’t human in the same way that he was. He couldn’t quite explain it. But he always walked away from those things feeling a little … unsettled by them.

If word got out, and it definitely would, that the boyfriend that Ross was being investigated over was the paralegal at Adam and Enid’s firm, those rich people had the power and the ability to put pressure on Adam and Enid to fire Tom.

Of course, everything would be cleared up eventually. But the gossip would do its damage. Clients would, at the very least, be demanding answers. There’d be a lot of talk. And if it all backfired onto the firm as well as the hospital…

Adam wouldn’t want to do it. Ross knew that. Adam was a good guy, and Tom had been with the firm for years, almost since they’d opened it. But the firm had to cater to its clientele and a scandal, however brief and dismissed, could tarnish their reputation for a long time to come.

Gossip, Ross knew, was an insidious thing, a creature with many heads.

He couldn’t let that happen to Tom. He wouldn’t only be dragging Tom down; he’d be potentially dragging the entire firm down with him.

Fuck. And after all that he’d told Tom, after he’d said that it was worth the risk…

Tom was worth the risk of Ross’s job. He knew that. Somehow, along the way, he’d slid into an intimacy with Tom that he couldn’t ignore. He cared about him, might even be falling in love with him. But he wasn’t going to risk Tom for this.

Ross could take on that burden of risking himself. But how could he ask Tom, or Adam and Enid, to weather whatever storm might pass through because of him? This was his issue, and his burden. He couldn’t ask them to suffer because of it.

There was only one thing for it.

As much as he hated it, as much as it went against what he had just said…

He had to break up with Tom.

It was awful, since he had just told Tom that they weren’t going to break up and that he was going to risk it, but that had been when he was thinking the danger was only to himself. Now that he knew that Tom and Tom’s coworkers, one of whom was Ross’s friend as well, might be endangering themselves…

He just couldn’t do that to them.

It would be selfish.

He was supposed to go to Tom’s place again that night, which was a good thing. They were mostly doing things at Tom’s apartment because of the leg, but in this case, it meant that he could say what he needed to say and leave, instead of kicking Tom out or having an awkward drive home from a restaurant or something.

Ross’s whole body felt too heavy as he took the elevator and went up to Tom’s apartment. He really didn’t want to do this. But he had to keep Tom safe, and this was the only way that he knew how to do it.

Tom opened the door for him, smiling, but his face fell when he saw the look on Ross’s face. “Everything all right? Did Jeremy tell them?”

Ross forced himself to take a deep breath. It felt like he couldn’t breathe properly, like his lungs were made of lead. “I did some thinking it over, and I think that you were right, after all. I think that it’s best if we don’t see each other.”

Tom stared at him, wide-eyed. “But … you said … I thought…”

“There are some things I just can’t risk,” Ross said. “And we can start again, after this has blown over. But I need to make sure that this is dealt with first. I can’t have there be any backlash.”

Tom looked for a moment like he might scream or something. But then he took a shaky breath and nodded. “Well, hey, I understand that.”

Ross frowned. “Do you?” He was prepared to elaborate. He didn’t expect Tom to just … accept it so easily. Especially since Ross could admit he was doing a bit of an about-face.

“Yeah, no, it’s fine. You do what you have to do.”

Ross thought that maybe there was something lost in the translation. “Tom, it’s only because—”

“No, it’s fine, honestly, you don’t have to apologize,” Tom said gently. “I’ll … see you around, I guess, then? Or you’ll tell me, I suppose, how it all pans out?”

Ross couldn’t help but feel that something had gone wrong. “Tom, I—”

“Have a good night, okay?” Tom said, and then he was gently but firmly closing the door in Ross’s face.

Ross stood there for a moment, thinking that he wasn’t sure how, but he had just seriously fucked things up.

He’d thought that … well, that Tom wouldn’t be quite so upset. Ross was the one who’d been pushing for a relationship, after all. Tom had just gone along with it. And surely Tom would understand that Ross wanted to protect him.

But apparently he hadn’t said it right.

Should he … knock on the door again? Text? Call?

He stared at the door for a minute.

Maybe it was for the best that Tom was upset. It would stop him from trying to keep them together and trying to make them work. They had to be apart. It was the only protection that Ross could offer while this whole thing went down.

He did it reluctantly, but he did walk away. And he didn’t call or text.

Not even when Jeremy broke the news.