Theolod had come in Herman's car, and Herman might have driven him back when he was done, but now he probably wasn't in the mood.

Theolod was going to go to the intersection to hail a taxi home, but he stood at the intersection for a while, and no empty car appeared. Seeing that many passers-by were looking at him, he had no choice but to walk to the subway station on the street to take the subway.

At this moment, a voice behind him stopped him. Facing the sun, Theolod saw the blonde man with gold-rimmed glasses, beckoning to him not far away, and walking towards him with a sense of purpose. His bright smile and wrinkled laugh lines at the corners of her eyes made her look extra relatable, and at the same time, it was hard to guess what he was thinking.

He walked out of Herman's apartment so quickly, and it seemed that he had been thrown out of Hermann's house after Theorod left.

"Long time no see, Mr. Lechte, I wanted to say hello to you at Hermann's house before, but unfortunately the situation did not allow it, and I am sorry to let you see such a rude scene, and delay your treatment. Dr. Miller's voice was genuinely soft, with an approachable magic that made most people forgive each other the very second he apologized.

But Theorod's forgiveness was only based on his own good cultivation and politeness: "It's okay, Dr. Miller, maybe it's me who should apologize for disturbing your private affairs." ”

"Oh, come on, Grant, given that this is the second time we've met, and that we have a good friend Manny in common. Dr. Miller winked at Theolod, "And the word 'bother' should be mine, I shouldn't have barged in so recklessly, but distressingly, Herman didn't want to see me at all." ”

"It looks like there's more to it than just a little misunderstanding between the two of you. Theorod looked at him with a clear look.

"Hmm...... How do you say that? I can't tell you these things for a while. Well, I know there's a nice coffee shop in Los Angeles that's just around the subway. To make up for my previous faux pas, may I treat you to a cup of coffee and a little snack? Their cheesecake is delicious, and the brownie is good. When it comes to refreshments, Englishman Grant Miller's sweet tooth is completely exposed, and even his tone is much lighter, "We can talk as we walk." ”

In fact, Theolod didn't want to inquire too much about other people's **, but this Dr. Miller was so enthusiastic and proactive as if he had other plans, so he had to nod quietly, pretending to be very interested, and walked to the subway station with Dr. Miller.

Along the way, Dr. Miller begins with his first encounter with Herman, who were medical classmates at the same university and lived in the same dormitory, and soon became good brothers. Then the two met to join the army together and became the military doctor of the team, although they did not belong to the same company, they still kept in touch in private. Dr. Miller joked that at that time the relationship between the two of them was so good that their parents regarded each other as their second son, and when they got married and had children, they were destined to be the godfathers of each other's children.

On a military holiday, the two met to go to the bar to indulge, and Grant brought his brother who had just enlisted in the army, that is, Herman's brother who met Miller for the first time, and on the day Alan Miller, their relationship with good brothers and sisters changed subtly.

Herman, though extremely close to Miller, had never met his brother's brother, who had been studying in Paris, and before that, Alan Miller had lived only in Grant's verbal descriptions. Alan has always admired his older brother Grant, and after he graduated, he also followed in Grant's footsteps and joined the Army, his company happened to be in the same training base as Herman, and Grant took Allen with him, just to let Herman take care of his younger brother.

Then, they fell in love.

Grant didn't describe too much about how they fell in love or why, I don't know if he didn't want to say more or he didn't know too much, and about "love", he only used a very complex and ambiguous "relationship" as a description, the complex emotions behind this word are hidden deep in his apparent calm, only occasionally, the eyes behind the pair of gold-rimmed glasses will flash some inexplicable emotion.

In short, they do develop an emotional and physical connection. The army is full of men, and it is normal for gays to appear in the ranks in such a situation, no matter how much training they take a shower or eat, they are all men in front of them. It's just that in those days, this was not allowed, it was more terrifying than being killed by the enemy on the battlefield, so the relationship between the two of them couldn't be more low-key, and even Grant only found out when they were about to leave the army.

Of course, no one can accept that their good brother secretly got along with their relatives, let alone their own brother. He knew that Herman hadn't had a girlfriend in a long time, but he just thought that no girl could get into the eyes of his cold and rigid brother, and he never thought about the other person's sexual orientation. As for his younger brother, he has never hidden anything from himself since he was a child, and he has also had a girlfriend or two, so when he first learned that the two of them were together, Grant, who was a close friend and brother, could not accept it in any way.

Of course, these are not the main reasons for their current relationship.

Grant noticed the irregularity between the two men during the Kuwaiti War, and before that, they had fought in the Grenada and Panama Wars. At that time, Allen's company suffered heavy casualties, and Allen was also seriously injured, and Grant, who arrived as soon as he learned the news, saw Herman standing aside, and saw it for the first time, and such a calm person would also panic to the point of losing control.

That night, Herman confessed to him, and Grant got into an uncontrollable physical altercation with him, and was confined to confinement.

The only fortunate thing is that Alan survived, and in the half-year recuperation, his injuries gradually improved, but time could not heal the psychological pain, but made the pain

And, even more unfortunately, this stress disorder brings with it an even greater nightmare, depression.

After the end of the Kuwaiti War, Herman and Allen chose to be discharged from the army together, followed by Grant. In order to cure Allen's mental illness, Herman and Grant temporarily put aside the mustard between the two and healed Allen together.

Alan has always maintained great cooperation, but for some reason, his condition does not improve for a long time, or relapses from time to time. Perhaps people with depression and PTSD will not be able to shake off their shadows for the rest of their lives, Herman and Grant have too little experience with depression, and Allen's illness leaves them helpless and costly.

In order to make a living, Grant accepted an olive branch from the Royal Brompton Hospital in England, but Herman saw his departure as a betrayal.

Not all stories lead to a happy ending, the real world is not a fairy tale, maybe you don't want to put too much pressure on Herman, maybe you don't want Herman to spit on his incompetence all the time, or something else, two years later, Alan finally gave up, he gave up the courage to live, he gave up the life that made him miserable. At one point, when Herman left him, he ran out of the apartment to the roof of the building opposite the bar where the two had first met, and walked up to the edge until Herman came in a panic.

He took a step forward with a relieved smile.

"For many days after that, I wondered if a lot of things would have been different if I hadn't accepted the invitation from Brompton Hospital that day. Grant fiddled with the cheesecake in front of him with his fork, his eyes a little vacant, maybe he had returned to that day. His smile was faint, not sad, with a kind of memory.

"Manny once told me that the person Alan respected and admired most in his life was his brother, and he didn't want to disappoint his brother, so he always catered to my preferences, my requests, and that's why he never told me about his sexuality, because he knew it would cause his most important brother to resent him, but I failed him after all, and his brother let him down. He thought I had abandoned him, but I was actually going to put money into Manny's account every month after I left, even if it would eventually be returned by him, you know that Herman, stubbornly stupid. ”

Manny said that if I hadn't chosen to leave him in the most difficult time, if his most important person hadn't chosen to give up on him, he wouldn't have given up on himself, and I thought the same for a long time afterward, blaming myself and even keeping me awake at night. ”

"You know what? At the time I just thought ...... I thought that Alan's illness had not reached that point, and when I left, I knew that with my better psychology grades than Manny, I thought that Alan was actually not so strict, and the funny thing is that at that time, I even used my professional knowledge to arrogantly think that it was just Allen's fragility and loneliness after the injury that made him instinctively show weakness to win the attention of others, and Manny, as a psychiatrist, would actually be tricked!"

"In the year since Alan's death, I have often spurned the arrogance of my honor student. It wasn't until I met more patients and specialists that I began to realize that maybe Manny and I were wrong, that we were too hypothetical, too theoretical, and that we cared about Allen but didn't really pay attention to what he really thought—"

Perhaps, from the day he unconditionally cooperated with our treatment, or perhaps earlier, he was ready to finally embrace death. Perhaps as early as the six months when he was seriously injured and bedridden, he began to think that his existence was only a burden to his lover, his brother, that he was ready to die, that his contempt for his life had been saved in the first place, so after that, no matter how he cooperated, nothing changed. Alan is a smart kid, but alas, he's so smart that he can even fake test answers. ”

When Grant said this, he shook his head helplessly: "I believe Manny has also found out about this a long time ago, but he doesn't want to admit it and don't want to let go." So, he's the only one who's willing to stay with you, Theo, and I can tell from the first sight that although you are gentle and polite on the surface, you are actually a more stubborn guy than my Manny, more arrogant than me, smarter than Alan, and you are definitely not a patient who can be a doctor's peace of mind. ”

"But, as his friend - and even if he still holds a grudge against me - I have to say a few words, Theo, I hope you understand, I understand him, Herman will never give up the opportunity to heal you for even a second, even if, like Alan, you were ready to embrace death for the sake of performance in the beginning. So, I want you to show a little cooperation, so that you don't care about you and the people you care about, become a second Manny and me. ”

Theolod listened to Grant's story quietly, in fact, Grant didn't stretch the story very long, at most he just described the interesting college life and military life of the two of them, and even Herman and Allen were together at the end, and the process of treating Allen was all brushed aside, but it was not difficult for him to hear the bitterness of the other party's understatement.

He pushed the empty plate with only a little cake crumbs left, wiped his mouth with a tissue, and said casually, "So, you came back to the United States to reconcile with Herman?"

"Reconciliation? No, I don't dare to cross the ocean with such lofty ideals, I only came to Los Angeles because of a medical seminar, and I will return to London tomorrow, I just want to take advantage of my free time to see how my old friends are doing, and if I can get rid of some mustard by the way, it doesn't matter...... Now it seems that Manny's answer to me is no. Grant smiled and shrugged.

"For the sake of this afternoon tea, Grant, I think I'm going to tell you some not-so-nice truths next, and I hope you don't mind. ”

Grant gave Theolod a puzzled look.

"Actually, you have told me all this, and in fact your purpose is only to impress me so that I can cooperate with your old friend who has broken up with you, and you have self-interest in your intentions - IMHO - because deep down you still have a sense of self-reproach, whether it is your disgust at learning about the sexual orientation of your brother and old friend, or your betrayal of Herman, or the fact that you left not only because of money, but also because you did not want to see your own failures in Alan, and you are afraid that you will not be able to save your loved ones. ”

"These negative emotions force you to get back together with Herman to get his forgiveness, but you know he won't do it lightly, so you think of me, who is also suffering from depression and being treated under Herman, and you want to do something for him, make yourself feel better, and even, reconcile with Herman. ”

Grant had a nonchalant smile on his face

He looked at Theorod, paused, and then smiled brightly: "And, I know that my too blunt words just now also stimulated you. ”

"......" Grant, the deliberate revenge of this well-dressed guy left Theolod a little speechless.

Grant stuffed a large mouthful of cake to his heart's content. He glanced at Theorod, behind Theorod to be precise, and suddenly narrowed his eyes meaningfully, and smiled harmlessly at him: "But you may not be able to detect my other attempt, Mr. Lechte......"

He stood up, walked over to Theorod, and under his inquiring gaze, bent down and imprinted a kiss on his cheek, and inexplicably pinched Theorod's palm on the table.

"Goodbye, my dear friend, and have a nice day. After that somewhat intimate veneer, Grant, like a well-honed old gentleman, said goodbye to Theorod.

Before Theolod could figure out the specific meaning of the other party's words, he returned the salute and was about to get up to send him out, but the other party pressed his shoulder to signal that he didn't have to see him off, and then left the coffee shop without hesitation.

Theolod sat on the spot and frowned and thought for a long time, but he couldn't figure out Grant's "other attempt", so he simply stood up and left here. It's just that he didn't expect that as soon as he stood up, a figure suddenly sat on Grant's empty chair with a big grin.

At that moment, Theolod suddenly understood Grant's intentions.

Could there be a more coincidence that Nattle would be here?