"Don't Let Go"
a Nice Holiday Sip by Mychael Black
Torquere Press

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Excerpt:
What a fine fucking time to get dumped: Christmas-fucking-Eve.

Dustin Case ignored the door slamming shut behind him. He ignored the half-drunken shouts coming from his now-former lover. Craig was an asshole, always had been; Satan Incarnate, Dustin was sure. Tugging his coat closed and zipping it up, Dustin stepped out into the cold December night, finally wondering what the hell he’d been thinking for these past seven months. He’d been warned—by more people than he could count—but he’d not listened. Sighing, he had to finally admit that he’d proven them all right: Craig was never going to change.

Snow drifts threatened to topple over onto the sidewalk and Dustin stepped around some that had. The small town, normally a little busier during the day, was already quieting down. Seemed other people had enough good sense to stay out of the bitter cold. Dustin pulled his phone out of his coat pocket and punched ‘one’ on speed dial. A couple rings later, Jason Rhodes answered.

“Dude, I tried to call you at home,” Jason said. “Where are you?”

Dustin snorted. “Walking.”

“Huh?”

“It’s over. Done with. End of the fucking line, dude.”

“Whoa, shit. Um, where are you, besides walking? Need a ride?”

Dustin stopped and glanced up at the neon sign buzzing in the window of a Texaco station. “Pick me at the Texaco on the corner of Second and Market?”

“Sure. Be there in a few.”

Snapping the cell phone shut, Dustin stared at his reflection in the gas station window. He’d never cheated, never even looked at another guy. But none of that mattered. All Craig saw and believed were the stupid delusions he managed to somehow come up with over the past two months. A phone call here, a concert there, a semi-private conversation out of the insanity of a party. That’s all it ever was, all it ever had been. Besides, Dustin met Jason long before Craig came into the picture, and throughout countless boyfriends on Dustin’s part and girlfriends on Jason’s, they’d always been there to dig each other out of the slumps when it all fell apart. As he stood and studied his face in the glass, headlights flashed behind Dustin when Jason’s truck pulled into the parking lot.