My dick was only mildly on its way to being flaccid when I entered the brightly lit living room in the damn middle of the night.

It was practically witching hours at this point and nobody should be awake.

But there was Connor, leaning down at the center table with a glass of what I can only assume was hard liquor in hand.

Without saying a word I simply walked over and swiped the drink from his hand before he could down it.

"Can a man not drink away his troubles in peace?"

"Yes," I snarkily reply.

Corner shot me a quick glare and I met him back with a defiant squint of my own eyes.

"I'll be damned if I let that woman turn you into a raging alcoholic as well."

"That woman is my wife."

"That woman is the town whore!!" I venomously whisper back. Because unlike Claire, I wasn't willing to let Allison hear what I had to say.

Connor violently pushes himself up off his chair and bulldozed towards me in a blind rage.

I stood my ground and didn't flinch.

On the outside, anyway.

On the inside I was screaming bloody murder.

"Don't you DARE ever say that again about-"

I cut him off by pointing towards one of the windows.

He looked through it, confused, till I hit the lights and bathed the room in darkness, then he could see.

Claire being pressed against the side of a car by another man, she noticed the lights being turned off and slightly pulled away before being pulled into the car completely and then them driving off.

Connor's whole entire being stood still.

"You didn't know she'd gotten THAT bold, did you?" I softly whisper.

His silence spoke volumes.

"Allison did."

Connor unfroze himself and whipped around to look at me as if I'd just committed a vile occultic sin.

Looking back at Allison's room, I grab Connor's hand and drag him into HIS room, and close the door behind us.

A courtesy that I'm sure Claire never even thought to consider.

I suddenly then turn around and shove Connor onto his bed, one that I know he'd slept alone in for the past few years.

"I never expected such a dilf like you to be such a cuckold." I spat out.

"Excuse me!?" Connor was speechless.

"You heard me! Why ELSE would you basically stand by a woman who drags your family's honour through the mud on a nightly basis? If it's not for some weird kinky sexual gratification, then I'm stumped for other answers."

"You would not understand-"

Connor tries to brush me off.

"TRY me." I challenge.

"She was there for me and Allison when no one else was!!" He exploded.

It wasn't even a yell, it was a cry for help.

Shit. Now I feel bad.

I sighed and walk up to him. He sat on his bed as he grabs fist fulls of his hair and held tight.

"I-I'm sorry....I shouldn't have pushed you-" My words get swiftly cut off by the action I feel him do next.

As soon as I got close enough he grabbed onto my waist and hugged me for dear life.

"Guess my job is to comfort TWO Bakers tonight," I playfully say as I ruffle his hair and hold him close.

"Heh, you have a shitty way of doing it." Connor maliciously cackles into my torso.

The vibration of which began to stir a certain body part I didn't need waking up right now.

I use the moment to pull away slightly from Connor and stealthily sit next to him.

The abject horror at the thought of my dick going hard in his face at such a vulnerable moment for him would leave me with so much shame I doubt if I'd allow myself to live to see the sunrise.

"Trust me, this was easy. You should've seen how difficult it was to get Ally to concede." I wave at the horrible memory. "She'd chased down Claire one night in a state of abject denial and unfortunately caught her in the act. She was messed up for the rest of the WEEK."

"What!? WHEN!? When did this happen!?!?" Connor shook me for answers.

"T-t-t-that week she said she was having the worst cramps of her life and wanted to be left alone."

"I KNEW IT!!! SOMETHING WAS UP AND I WAS RIGHT!!"

"P-p-please don't tell her I rat-t-t-tted her out," I ask him while he still slightly shook me.

Connor simply raised an eyebrow at me, silently asking 'why?'.

I was silent a moment, but decided it best to come clean. It was about HIS wife, and unfortunately daughter, after all.

"Claire saw Allison catch her in the act, and manipulated Ally into keeping quiet or 'she'd be responsible for any divorce that happened as a result'. Her exact words," I quoted with quotation marks for emphasis.

I think I saw one of the veins in Connor's head pop.

I got up and rush to push down Connor before he jumped off the bed and did only God knows what.

"You are NOT going to confront Allison OR Claire about this!!" I hiss at him as I struggle to shove him back down.

Connor gives me the most incredulous look I'd ever seen grace his face.

"And why is that? Better yet, how are you gonna stop me?"

As if to prove his point, he then effortlessly got up to show how futile my attempts to push him down were.

"Y-you'll destroy any sense of trust I have left with Allison!" I tried to reason with him in a blind panic. "I've already broken a MAJOR best friend code by even telling you any of this!!"

My pleas seem to be working.

Maybe.

Connor just silently looks down at me and momentarily thinks.

I could almost SEE the gears in his head turning.

"I can't just....let this slide!" Connor explodes.

"I mean, you've basically known this whole time. What's suddenly changed?" I mumble snarkily under my breath.

He definitely heard.

I bristle at the sharp look he gave me but still foolishly stand my ground.

"Her involving Allison is what's changed." He answers.

I pause.

This whole time.....has he been putting up with Claire because he believed Allison was blissfully ignorant!?

Now I needed a moment and I raised my hand to Connor to indicate the moment I needed, took a deep breath, and centred myself.

"Nobody is in the headspace to have this conversation right now." I suddenly say to the room, as if I'm speaking to a large group of people instead of the one man. "You're emotionally destroyed and I'm mentally annihilated. Let's just ALL go to bed, and tackle this shit in the morning when we've all gained more mental clarity."

It had been a ridiculously long night, and I just wanted to be out cold.

Connor seemingly wanted to protest, but after he suddenly winched from what I could only consider was a growing headache, he nodded at my proposal.

"Alright then. Good night Connor." I turn to leave his room. "I assume you won't let me spend the night in Allison's room, so if you'd be so kind, I'd like to borrow your couch for the evening."

I started to make my way towards it when I feel a force grab onto my elbow.

"Y-you're not going home?" Connor seemed to be caught completely off guard.

"Oh, eh-" I was a bit embarrassed to admit this, but hiding it wouldn't help anyone. "I rushed out without grabbing my keys, and my mom has the night shift today. So I'm fully locked out of my house."

Connor gives me the most goofy and condescending of looks.

"What!? It's usually fine if I forget! I just crash here instead." I puff out my cheeks and fold my arms at the sight of Connor clearly laughing at me on the inside.

"The fact that this is the first time I'm hearing of this, and WHY are you saying it all so casually??"

"What?? It's not like we get freaky or anything." I roll my eyes.

"You are waaaay too comfortable around me," Connor comments.

"You say that as if it's a bad thi- w-where are you taking me!?" Panic laced and latched onto my voice when I feel Connor begin to drag me back into his room.

I've had MANY daydreams about this exact scenario happening, but usually clothes have gone flying beforehand. I needed to keep it together cause what was happening right now was real and not one of my sick twisted fantasies.

"I'll be damned if I let you sleep on the couch after all you've done tonight." Connor simply says as he effortlessly throws me onto his bed and launches himself into it after me.

He lays down stomach facing up as he lets out what has to be the mother of all sighs.

Like he'd left off a weight even his ancestors have been holding in.

"Oh, gah!" A strangled cry escapes from him.

I uncurl myself from my fetal position and gingerly scoot closer to him.

Connor's body wobbled with the weight of what he struggled, but ultimately failed, to hold back.

I just silently pat him on the shoulder in solidarity.

"Just let it all out," I softly coo to him. "No one will judge you here."

And so I, a love-struck fool in my mid-early twenties, comforted the man in his early thirties as he silently wept into the cold empty night.