“A shitty son too, while we’re at it,” he grumbles. “Shouldn’t have agreed to this. We’re not staffed enough. This probably wouldn’t have been such a shitshow if they stayed in Camilla.”
There’s a hand on his arm—Gabby’s. “You need to breathe.”
He takes a deep breath. It doesn’t help. Right on cue, a florist from the other side of the room trips and spills her box of centerpieces all over the floor, the sound of glass shattering resounding through the room. Perfect. The livestreaming teenagers gasp and point their cameras at it.
Matthew levels a stare at him as he walks off. “You’re neither a shitty friend nor a shitty son. We can catch up after this is all over if you’d like, and you’re doing more than enough for your mom.” He taps Calvin on the shoulder as he passes him, and points to Miles. “Talk to him, will you? He’s freaking out about everything.”
“That’s not—” Miles goes red. He groans and tips his head back, covering his face with both his hands.
“What’s wrong?” Calvin approaches him. “Everything okay?”
“Matthew’s going to be back soon with suits,” Gabby tells Calvin. “I’m going to go take care of that glass.”
“Got it.” He holds Miles’s elbow. “Miles?”
“Yeah, yeah. Hi.” His voice is muffled from under his hands. “Need to get someone on that broken glass.”
“Gabby’s already on it. Miles, hey.” Calvin grips his wrists andtugs his hands away from his face. He rubs his thumbs against Miles’s skin and smiles. “It’s okay. Everything’s under control.”
“Sorry.” He’s spiraling, and he knows it, and it’s so humiliating that Calvin has to see him like this. “I shouldn’t have agreed to this stupid thing. It’s my fault. Now hundreds of people are going to—this is going to go viral, with that stupid livestream and its fucking eight hundred viewers—”
“What livestream?”
Miles points at the twins on the other side of the lobby. “Those twins are live-streaming this entire fiasco.”
“Okay. Wait.” Calvin yanks Chase by the back of his shirt. Chase protests and turns to them, bewildered, and Gil cranes his neck to see what’s going on. “Do me a favor. Can you go chat with those teenagers, tell them we’re playing and all that, turn their mess of a stream around?”
Miles’s shoulders slacken in defeat. “You don’t have to.”
“Why would I—” Chase looks up, gets a glimpse of Calvin’s firm expression, and blinks.
Gil smiles. “We’ll take care of the stream.”
“Yeah, sure,” Chase says.
Miles watches as both Gil and Chase make their way toward the teenagers, who squeal when they see them approaching. Chase’s voice is loud and resounds across the lobby as he pulls into the shot. Miles can’t hear what they’re saying, but the teenagers are jumping on the balls of their feet.
“It’ll be okay.” Calvin rubs Miles’s arms up and down.
Will it? Calvin says it will be okay, but Miles’s head is throbbing.
There’s a flicker in Calvin’s eyes, and he looks around quickly before putting a hand on Miles’s cheek and leaning in to give him a quick peck on the lips.
That easily, Miles’s world comes into focus once more.
“It’ll be okay,” Calvin says, leaning away. Miles kind-of wants to pull him back, dive in again and again and kiss him until he can’t breathe, because apparently that’s all his brain needs to reboot. “Everything’s fine.”
Kiss me again,he wants to say, but the words get stuck in his throat. Calvin studies his expression and seems to get it, anyway, pulling at his wrist and leading him to the closed-off hallway behind the front desk. Once they’ve retreated out of everyone’s view, Calvin cups Miles’s face and kisses him, slowly and tenderly.
Something within Miles settles, all the tension in his body vanishing, and he grasps the back of Calvin’s neck and kisses him back.
“We’ve got you,” Calvin says, smiling against his lips and rubbing his jaw with a thumb. “Trust me.”
Then Calvin presses their lips together again, deeper this time, and Miles groans and sags in his hold. Calvin coaxes his mouth open with a tongue, a hand dropping down to Miles’s hip and drawing circles.
“Calvin,” he breathes, feeling much more like himself now. “If you don’t stop, I’ll forget about this wedding completely. I’ll throw you over my shoulder and head to your room to do stupid, unspeakable things.”
He laughs. “What kind of stupid, unspeakable things?”
