Summary:

Loud beeps from his phone startled Ilya, and he slowed down, reaching for the device he’d put on the bar between his legs. Jane. He smiled to himself when he saw the notifications, and, checking Marlowe was absorbed in his own fitness, opened it quickly, smiling in anticipation of Shane's words.

The smile was wiped off his face almost instantly.

The blood drained from his face, and Ilya felt like the bottom had just fallen out of his world.

*****

Maybe he was naive, but Ilya always thought he had time. Time with Shane. Time to tell him what he truly meant to him.

That, somehow, one way or another, Shane would always be there.

But a text message late one night threatens to destroy the future that Ilya has spent the time carefully constructing in his mind.

Maybe Shane wasn't always going to be there. That Shane would be cruelly snatched away from him before he had a chance to be honest.

That he would be left behind. Alone.