Mason could tell he was just trying to change the subject, trying to push back the hurt he felt about Mason being with other men the same way Mason had to about him.
“I’d love to.”
A loud pinging sound caught Chase’s attention. He grabbed his phone from beside him and checked it.
As he groaned, Mason asked, “What’s wrong?”
“Just Tristan.”
Mason tensed up at the name again.
“Mind if I take it real quick? It might be about work.”
“By all means.”
Chase answered, “What’s up? … Really? You’re calling me about this guy? Now? Look, Tristan, I have company. I thought this was going to be about work. … It’s none of your business who it is. We can talk about this tomorrow.”
When he hung up, Mason asked, “What did he want?” He was trying to sound cool, like he didn’t want to kick the crap out of the guy, but he found himself struggling to pretend to feel anything other than overprotective of Chase.
“Just boy troubles. He’s been seeing this guy who it doesn’t seem like wants to be serious with him, but he wants him, and—”
“You talk to him about stuff like that?”
“Yeah, we’re still friendly. I don’t have anything against him. We were together for three years. We got together last week to talk about this guy he’s seeing… or trying to see… I don’t even know. He just needs to cut him loose and move on. He has that problem. Toward the end, I kept pushing away, and he wanted to keep on trying. It was sweet, but I didn’t feel anything anymore.”
“Anymore?” Mason asked, wondering if Chase had misled him about how intense his feelings for Tristan had been.
“No. I never loved him, but you know, it was hot. He was fun. There was something nice about having a friend, but in the end, that’s what we were—friends. And we are a good team at work. I figure because we get along relatively well.”
Talking about how cool he was with Tristan and his job frustrated Mason.
It would have been nice to believe that Chase was miserable at his job, or even that he was working with a company he wasn’t satisfied with, that his core values didn’t line up with theirs. Then there would be the promise that somehow they could find a way to make their situation work. But as it stood, Chase was right where he belonged, which just so happened to be on the other side of the country.
They spent the rest of the day at the beach and went out for dinner later before returning to the condo to change for their night out.
Mason brought the clothes he would have worn if he’d gone out in Atlanta. Not as nice as the button-up and pants that Chase wore, but he figured it wouldn’t really matter in a dark bar.
They headed to the Abbey, a place Chase had mentioned a few times since he’d arrived. They stood behind the bar sipping on cocktails. Only a few small clusters of people took up the open space.
“It’s quiet now,” Chase noted, “but when it gets a little later, this place is going to be packed. Friday nights here can get so busy that you’ll have a hard time pushing through the crowd.”
“Wow. The gay clubs in Atlanta definitely aren’t this big.”
“It’s kind of a mixed crowd here, but don’t worry, I’ll take you to the other clubs for sure. We’ve got Rage and Mickey’s. You’ll like them, I think.”
“Rage?”
Chase beamed. “It’s the fun dance club.”
“You do a lot of dancing?”
“I’ve done my share.”
“Funny. You used to hate dancing. I remember I practically had to force you at homecoming.”
“That was more about being scared of the drama we’d stir up with people being weird about the two faggots dancing.”
“And boy, did we cause a stir,” Mason added with a smile.
