Riley hadn’t said a single word since we’d ordered our drinks and gone to sit outside. Normally I couldn’t get the kid to shut up long enough to get a word in edgeways, so I knew something was up with him. I figured it must have something to do with work. Maybe he was just having an off day. I’d had my fair share of those in the last few months, so I got it. I wondered if his dad had something to do with the foul mood he was in.

Riley had started working for his dad at his computer software company after college. The day before our last day, Riley pulled us aside and told us that he wouldn’t be playing pro football. We were certain he was pulling our leg, but one look at his face told us he was telling the truth. We all knew how much he loved playing, so none of what he had said made any sense. When we grilled him on it, he said that he wanted a stable job, one that was guaranteed, and football just couldn’t give him that stability. We understood where he was coming from. I guess we always just presumed we would all leave college together and follow our dreams. Sitting behind a desk and answering calls wasn’t him following his dreams.

Riley had been brought up different to us. He had to work for everything he owned. It wasn’t handed to him on a plate. His dad had brought his business up from nothing and worked all the hours in the day to keep it afloat. They weren’t rich. They didn’t have a fancy mansion in the countryside, nor did they have the social status like my parents had. They were grafters. Just normal, middle-class people trying to earn a steady living. I always thought that Riley’s parents had some influence in his decision. I guess they wanted their son to learn the value of an honest day’s work. And Riley went along with it. He never complained. He never moaned about not being able to play. He wasn’t even envious of Taylor and me for following our dreams. I’d lost a lot of friends through the years, some I missed, others not so much, but Riley? I kept him around because he was one of the good ones. Even if he had a foul mouth and an answer to everything.

I watched with furrowed brows as Riley lifted the pint glass to his lips and left it there until he had polished it off. A frown marred his forehead as he slammed it down on the wooden bench. He looked like a tortured man as he stared off in the distance with worry lines etched high on his forehead.

I wanted to ask him what had gotten into him, but I knew he wouldn’t answer me if I did. He would only talk when he was ready to, and I would be there to listen when that time came around. See, that’s what Riley did when something was bothering him. He stayed silent, ignoring everyone around him until eventually it became too much and he blurted it all out. But it had been a long time since something had bothered him this much. I knew whatever it was must be serious.

I pushed up from the bench, thinking another round was in order. Just as I pulled a leg out from under the table and planted it on the other side, he sighed. It was the first noise I’d heard him make all afternoon. When I glanced down at him, he was shaking his head.

“I fucked up,” he said, still shaking his head.

I sat back down, almost afraid to ask what he’d done. Riley looked at me with pleading eyes, as if he was willing me to say something. “What did you do?” I eventually asked, bracing myself for what was to come.

“More like who did I do.” Riley let out a frustrated groan and dropped his forehead to the table, interlocking his fingers behind his head. “Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.”

“Please tell me you didn’t?” I sighed. Tia. I sensed that something had happened between them, but I told myself that I was just drunk and imagining things.

“I did.”

I closed my eyes and drew in a deep breath. When I opened them, his eyes were on me and that same tortured look settled across his face once again. “Fuck it!” he roared. “I’m screwed.”

“Have you…?”

“Told Aubrie? No. Not yet. Fuck! What am I gonna do, J?”

“You’re gonna have to tell her, mate. She’ll only hear it from someone else if you don’t.” I knew first-hand how quickly gossip spread around Winslow. It wouldn’t be long before Brie found out the truth. That’s if she hadn’t already.

“I know, but… fuck, I can’t do it to her.”

I shook my head. “You already have.” I wasn’t being an arse. The damage had already been done. “Do the decent thing, Rye. Tell her yourself. Imagine how much worse it’ll be if she hears it from someone else.”

“When I saw her yesterday. After…” Riley closed his eyes and inhaled a long breath. “She threw her arms around me and told me how sorry she was. I was convinced that the second she took one look at me that she’d know I’d fucked up. She apologised, mate.”

“Rye...” It was all I had to offer.

“Do you wanna know what the worst thing is?” he asked, his brows raised high.

I shook my head.

“She said that she was worried she would end up destroying us. That because of Mel, she wasn’t fully able to trust me. She’s insecure because of me and there she is apologising to me like it’s her fault she’s feeling that way. She fucking apologised, Jake. Can you believe it?”

“I don’t know what to say.”

“There’s nothing you can say. I’ve got to tell her. That’s all there is to it.”

“You know it’s the right thing to do, right?”

“No. The right thing to do was not to do it at all. What was I thinking, ay?”

“You weren’t,” I replied honestly.

“It’s gonna kill her. I’m gonna break her heart all over again, only this time, she won’t forgive me. She won’t take me back. And do you know what? She shouldn’t. All I ever do is hurt her.”

I looked to my mate, and for the first time in forever there wasn’t a damn thing I could say to him to make it all better. I had no comforting words. Nothing to help ease the pain. I knew that something had happened with Tia. I had been too busy with my fingers inside Sadie to even care what was going on with the two of them. I could’ve stopped him. I could’ve stopped him from making the second biggest mistake of his life, and instead I sat back and let it happen. Even when he came back acting as though nothing had happened, I had wanted to believe that he had learnt his lesson, that he wouldn’t go behind Brie’s back again.

“You should’ve seen her face,” he continued. “I couldn’t even look at her. She was convinced I was still mad at her for the other night, and I let her carry on believing that because I was too much of a pussy to tell her the fuckin’ truth.”

“She loves you,” I told him, as if that fucking mattered.

“And I love her, too. So fuckin’ much. This is killing me, Jake. Her face,” he said, shaking his head. “I’m never gonna get that picture out of my head.”

“Go and see her. Tell her what happened. As much as it’s gonna destroy her, you need to tell her. Everything. You never know. She might learn to forgive you.”

“Na. That ain’t gonna happen. And even if it does, I can’t continue being with her.”

“So, what you’re saying is, even if she does forgive you, then it’s still over?”

“I can’t put her through that. She’ll never trust me again. Not in a million years. I don’t blame her. I don’t even trust me.”

I drew in a breath and exhaled slowly. This was going to destroy her. She had taken him back the last time. I didn’t hold much hope for that happening again. And Riley wasn’t going to fight her on it, either. Riley was my friend, but even I thought she was an idiot for forgiving him so easily. I guess that was what you did when you loved someone. Forgave them. Fought for them. Risked your heart for that one person who was capable of ruining you. The trust between Riley and Aubrie was already gone. It was why Riley very rarely went out without her. He was my mate and in a way, I felt sorry for him. He looked so distraught at the realisation of what he had done and what he was about to lose. But he had brought it on himself. Whatever happened after today, our group would never be the same again.