This Will Hurt

**Standalone | Part I of II | Angst | Awakening | Friends to Lovers | Single Dad | Slow Burn**
*Maybe the heart needs to break before one can put together the pieces correctly. This is Jake and Roe’s story.*
I used to think leaving the Marines and moving to LA was the defining moment that changed my life. I was gonna become a documentary filmmaker and see the world through my camera. Then I met Roe Finlay.
Never in a million years could I have imagined…well, everything we went through. I sucked at expressing how I felt—which was emotionally stunted most of the time—but Roe seemed to get me. I became…dependent. Attached. Not in a sexual way or anything—I wasn’t gay. Far from it. Or bisexual like Roe, for that matter. No, this was different. I just wanted to be close to him. He made me laugh like no other. We were a fantastic team. We lived together. Worked together. He was my best friend.
He was everything. *He* was my defining moment.
Until he decided to commit to his f—to his girlfriend.