“You didn’t tell her, right?” Hayden’s voice rose.
“I promised you I wouldn’t.”
Hayden stared out through the windshield.
“Did you always know?” he asked. “That you were bi?”
Nick sighed. Hayden was avoiding the question, but pushing it would lead to shouting or sulking. “No. Maybe. But not really. Your mom and I were your age when we met, and then my dad died. There was a lot of growing up and a lot of figuring stuff out happening very fast.” But two could play this game. “Did you always know?”
Hayden smirked. “Yup.”
Nick winced. All those years. How had they not seen it? And why had Hayden felt he needed to keep it a secret?
“You’re not—are you—is there anyone who—” They pulled into the school lot, and Nick could have kicked himself for bringing this up when they had so little time left.
“Am I blowing guys in the locker room?”
Nick winced, and Hayden laughed as he pulled his backpack up from the floor.
“Just be careful, okay? I don’t want you doing anything you’ll regret.”
A mean-eyed boy with too many piercings knocked on the passenger side window, making them both jump.
“That’s Carson. I have to go.”
“Hayden—”
But Hayden was already getting out of the car without so much as a look back.
* * *
It turned out the combination of bone-deep anger and gut-twisting nerves led to a kind of nauseated numbness, which was what Oliver was feeling by the time he got to the shop the next morning. Twice he’d gone to his phone to text Cooper and tell him to forget it. Twice, he’d bailed because Cooper didn’t deserve the satisfaction of knowing how much he’d rattled Oliver. Cooper had always been an expert in reading people. Handy when they worked together. Not so much when he was appearing unannounced in the middle of the night like something out of a horror movie.
The shop was dead, which would have been frustrating. Today, it was irritating, but also convenient because it gave Oliver room to pace. The extra-large black coffee he’d picked up didn’t help. After so many months off caffeine—with the exception of the other day at the diner—trying to walk his talk with the shop, it hit him like a truck. For a moment, he was worried he was having heart palpitations. Cardiac arrest would solve a lot of problems.
By nine forty-five, he was back to angry, and the twitching was under control. The second part was good; the first was a problem. He hadn’t handled things well the night before. It gave Cooper the advantage. In fact, Cooper had the upper hand since the moment he announced he wasn’t moving to Seacroft with Oliver. Showing up without warning was a continuation.
The door opened at nine-fifty because Cooper would never be late for anything. His face was like cold water down Oliver’s spine, which helped solidify his position at least.
“Hey.” Cooper smiled.
Oliver swallowed hard. That smile had been for him once. Ten years of memories with that smile, and Oliver would be lying his ass off if he said it didn’t affect him. But the ten months of distance between them now meant the smile couldn’t mean anything anymore. “Hi.”
Cooper was polished and perfect because he’d never let himself be anything else. The closet in their condo had been half the size of their bedroom, wall-to-wall with designer suits, shoes, and so many ties Oliver had once joked Cooper could go a year without wearing the same one twice. This morning, Cooper was in his weekend chic mode, despite it being Tuesday. Checkered shirt rolled up to his elbows, flat front chinos. The ostrich-skin belt was new. “Thanks for seeing me. You look good.”
By comparison, Oliver had gone for his deepest, most committed hipster casual. Worn T-shirt, torn jeans. He’d left his hair down.
This was who they were now. Oliver was where they had planned to be, and Cooper—clean-shaven, his hair perfectly styled—was where they had once been. For all of Cooper’s perfect exterior, Oliver didn’t want him anymore.
He wanted Nick.
“What are you doing here?”
Cooper smiled, green eyes scanning the store. Oliver knew what those eyes looked like after sixteen hours at the office. Or right after Cooper had just had the best orgasm of his life.
“I like the layout. I thought you were going to put the fridge by the door.”
“Old breaker. It kept blowing. There’s a short in the building somewhere.” That had taken a month to give up on. By the time Oliver finally admitted the fridge wasn’t going to go where he’d planned, even the electrician had stopped charging him to come try to find the source of the problem.
