It wasn’t until he got a message from Graham asking if traffic was bad that he realized he was already twenty minutes late to their date.
The plan had been casual enough, dinner at their favorite sports bar, but it was all the way across town and Thad was tired and his head ached, and he couldn’t seem to nail down his thoughts in any way that made sense.
There was definitely no way in hell he had the energy to go all the way across town, much less try to pretend like it was a normal date night.
Still, he was a dumbass when it came to relationships, but not so much of a dumbass he didn’t know canceling via text wasnotthe way to go.
So he called Graham.
“One sec,” Graham said when he answered. “Let me go outside, it’s too loud in here.”
Itwasloud, Thad could hear the babble of background noise through the phone, so he said, “sure,” and waited until the muttered, “excuse me’s” ended and everything went silent.
“I’m outside,” Graham finally said. “Is everything okay?”
“Yeah. Well, not really.” Thad sprawled on his loveseat and rubbed his forehead. “I’m going to have to cancel on you.”
“Did something happen to your car or something?” Graham sounded worried.
Thad had gotten the car back but the mechanic had warned him there was a lot more work he could’ve done. And at some point soon, Thad was going to have to decide if it was worth continuing to invest in the old thing or if he should give up and buy something new.
Well, used. But new to him.
Something slightly less decrepit than his current car but still affordable, anyway.
“The car’s fine. I …” Thad rubbed his temple. “My head ispounding.”
“Oh shit.” Graham’s tone immediately turned concerned. “Is there anything you need?”
“Nah, I’ll be okay. Thanks though.”
Graham was silent and, for a moment, Thad listened to him breathe. He finally said, “Is that the only reason you stood me up?”
Thad winced. “Honestly, I forgot we had plans tonight. I had a therapy appointment, and it was … heavy, I guess. I don’t know. I was on autopilot when I headed home. I am sorry though.”
“No, I get it,” Graham said. “I mean, Iama little disappointed. We haven’t had a lot of time together in the past few days.”
“I know.” Guilt washed over Thad. “I’ll make it up to you tomorrow. How about that?”
“Yeah?” Graham said, his tone warming a little. “What were you thinking?”
“Well,” Thad said, kicking off his shoes and settling back on the loveseat. “They’re feeling guilty for overworking me, so I have the day off. And you have an optional skate, right?”
“I still have to go in for a few things, but yeah. It should be a pretty short morning for me.”
“So how about this?” Thad offered. “I’ll get to your place kinda early. I’ll suck your dick before you head to practice, then hang out at your place while you’re there, if you’re cool with it, then I’ll make you brunch, and we’ll go out and do something.”
“Like a date?” Graham said, his tone very warm now.
“Yeah. Like that.”
“Sounds good to me.” Graham was definitely smiling now. Thad could hear it through the phone.
Relieved, Thad said, “Good. Let’s do it.”
“You sure you don’t want me to come over there now?” Graham asked. “I know your head hurts and you’re not feeling super great right now, but I could always suck your dick.”
Thad absently palmed his cock through his jeans. “That’s definitely tempting,” he admitted.
