Gregory pulled the keychain back out of his pocket and dangled the keys in front of him.
Four keys.
Front door.
Back door.
Office door.
House.
Gregory selected the blue key and shoved it in the lock and turned, the giant wooden door of Rapture creaking open. He closed it behind him and flicked the light switches up and took a deep breath.
Rapture was daunting with the lights on, but he’d been here before. Not that long ago before hours when he’d taken Landon upstairs and defiled him until his bones were jelly. But Landon wasn’t here now. Neither was Verity. It was just Gregory.
He’d realized quickly last weekend that going to New York, which would serve as a predictable, if not grand gesture of love and affection, was not what Landon needed. Jack was recovering, and he and Landon both needed help. They needed someone who knew them, that they were comfortable around. They needed Verity.
Landon’s continued silence had been punishing enough, and Gregory didn’t want to hash out the obvious lingering pain from their past while Jack convalesced in a five-hundred square foot apartment.
Gregory would be the one thing Landon was not—patient. He would wait, at home, doing what Landon needed him to do without having been asked.
Gregory walked through the open club and flipped the lights on as he went, opening Landon’s office and dropping into his chair. Verity had kindly left him a list on Landon’s large whiteboard calendar of things he needed to do before Callum arrived. Searching for a pen, he pulled the top drawer of Landon’s desk open and grabbed one of the approximately seven thousand pens that were rolling around. He was pushing the drawer closed when something glossy toward the back caught his eye.
Reaching into the back of the drawer, Gregory pulled out an age worn picture that took his breath away. The picture was him, and Landon of course, in gold caps and gowns, green tassels dangling between their faces.
He remembered the picture like it had been taken yesterday. Graduation day. Before Landon had even told him about the move to New York. Their arms were flung around each other’s shoulders and Landon smiled up at Gregory, who was looking at the camera. Gregory couldn’t pinpoint if he was more moved to see the picture again, or the fact that Landon had the picture in his desk at work.
Gregory made a mental note to get a frame and put itonthe desk, because while Landon may be holding a grudge, that wasn’t going to last forever, Gregory would make sure of it.
He closed the drawer and grabbed the notebook Landon used for inventory, took the pen he’d collected and went to the bar, making quick work of tallying the bottles of liquor and beer. He was upstairs checking the loft supply when Callum arrived.
“Hey there, temporary boss,” Callum called up the stairs.
“Hey, man!” Gregory gave him a wave on his way to the first floor.
“How’s it going? You nervous?” Callum asked, sliding under the pass of the bar and shoving his bag into an empty cabinet beside the fridge.
“What would I be nervous for? Verity promised me that you do all the hard work.” He laughed.
Callum rolled his eyes. “That’s probably the truth. But bartending is the easy part.”
“Counting bottles isn’t that hard, to be honest,” Gregory confided.
“Is that all they do?” Callum asked in mock surprise. “I’m going to have to have a talk with the bosses upon their eventual return.”
“Ask me about it on Sunday. Maybe I’m over-confident.”
* * *
As it turned out,Gregory had been over-confident. It wasn’t so much that there was any one specific thing that needed attention, but Gregory was on his feet all night, helping Callum and the other bartenders, making sure play spaces were clean, and also dealing with his friends who’d showed up to heckle him at his new part-time gig.
By the time he got home at four, he tumbled into bed fully dressed and was asleep before his head hit the pillow. He woke sometime after the sun had come up to an insistent pounding at his front door. He stumbled out of bed and angrily yanked the front door open, revealing a smiling Aaron on his porch.
“Rise and shine,” Aaron said cheerily, holding up a brown paper bag with one hand and a to-go cup of coffee in the other.
Gregory mumbled something rude and stepped back to let Aaron in. He was pushing the door closed when he met resistance, finding Justin there as well.
“You too?” Gregory grumbled.
