I Slept With My Enemy, Now He Won't Let Me Go novel · Chapter 11 of 24

Chapter 11: The Boathouse Boy

The conference room did not make a sound.

Neil's hand had gone dead in Jude's.

"Since we were fifteen," Neil said.

"Neil."

"You've known since we were fifteen."

Jude nodded.

He could not stop looking at him.

At the other end of the table, Ansel gave a short, ugly laugh.

"So the great enemies were lovers all along," he said. "How touching. You're all witnesses. They've been lying to this board for thirteen years."

"Sit down, Ansel," said the oldest board member.

"I'm only saying."

"I heard you. Sit." The old man pushed himself up with both hands. "I was on this board when Neil's grandfather died. I'll say one thing. A man's body is his own. This board decides on his work, and his work is on that wall behind him."

He gestured at the row of framed hulls.

"I move that the matter on the agenda is closed," he said. "Anyone?"

Three hands went up.

Then five.

Then seven.

Ansel stared down the table with his mouth open.

"Meeting adjourned," Neil said quietly.

He pulled his hand out of Jude's and walked out.

Jude followed him into the corridor, past the drafting hall, and into the stairwell, where Neil turned on the landing and put his back against the wall.

"Tell me," Neil said.

"Not here."

"Now."

Jude took a breath.

"We were fifteen," he said. "You were sick at school. Two days, white, bent over. The nurse put you in the infirmary and went to find your grandmother, and I was in there with a split lip from fighting someone else."

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