“He said he was looking for batteries for the remote.”
“See? I told you so. I’m sure you’re imagining things.”
Patrick’s blood pressure ratcheted up a notch. “Maybe I am overreacting a bit, but it’s my home, Dion. I should be able to relax in my own home and not be worried about my privacy being invaded.”
“Oh, for God’s sake. He wasn’t invading your privacy—”
“Going into my room, touchingmystuff,isinvading my privacy,” Patrick snapped. “Listen, I just don’t want him here when you’re not home.”
“No, you listen. Ian is my boyfriend. There’ll be times when he’s here waiting for me to get home. What if I’m running late? Do you expect him to wait out in the hall?”
“No, but—”
“You’d understand if you had a boyfriend.” Dion picked up his mug and peered at Patrick over the rim. “Maybe that’s it. Maybe you’re jealous.”
“What? That’s ridiculous. I’m not jealous.” Patrick took a sip of his coffee.I’m not jealous, am I? Am I reading too much into this?He bit back his temper at Dion’s easy dismissal of his concerns and tried to think logically. Dion’s defense of his boyfriend was to be expected; they’d only been seeing each other for a few months and were in the early flush of the relationship, and Patrick knew Dion had desperately wanted someone in his life.
“Dion, I thought you were making me breakfast?” They both turned at the sound of Ian’s voice. He stood in the doorway with a towel wrapped around his hips.
Dion jumped off his stool. “Sorry, hon. We got chatting. I’ll get to it now. Two eggs or three?”
“Two’s fine.” Ian winked then left the kitchen.
Dion set the egg carton on the counter and spoke in a low voice. “Look. Maybe you don’t like Ian, or maybe you do, whatever.”What the fuck is that supposed to mean?“But I live here, too. He’s my boyfriend and I want him around. I’ll tell him to stay out of your room. Okay?”
Patrick nodded slowly. What else could he do? He’d try to have another chat with Dion later, when Ian wasn’t there. “That’s a start, I guess.”
Dion broke into a broad smile. “Great. How about I cook you an egg, too?”
“No, thanks, I’m not hungry.”
Patrick took his half-empty coffee with him and left the room. He hid out—because hiding was exactly what he was doing—in his room. The sounds of conversation, laughter, and cutlery on plates drifted from the kitchen. It wasn’t until he’d heard Dion say goodbye to Ian and the front door slam, that Patrick finally left his room and headed for the shower.
God, he felt like a prisoner in his own home.
Simon
Simon looked aroundat the group of people gathered in the restaurant; two he knew well, and the other three he’d just met. His gaze kept being drawn to the guy sitting diagonally opposite. It wasn’t his good looks that captured Simon’s attention, although he was most definitely the kind of guy Simon was attracted to. What piqued his interest was the guy’s engaging smile and the way he kept sneaking glances at Simon from under a sweep of hair that flopped across his forehead. He looked friendly, if not a little shy judging by the flush to his cheeks whenever Simon looked his way.What is his name again? Patrick, that’s it.
It was lucky that Patrick hadn’t ended up at the other end of the table when they’d all taken their seats, but even so, Brian, one of Simon’s colleagues from work, was monopolizing Patrick’s time and Simon hadn’t been able to break into their conversation. At least not without seeming like a rude asshole. Simon tried to ignore the little spark of jealousy and forced himself to look away.
He focused on his best friend and fellow paramedic, Josh, who was sitting next to him. Josh had a big smile on his face as he held out his glass so his boyfriend, Charlie, could fill it with beer. Josh had been so nervous to be doing the meet-the-friends thing. He wanted his friends to get to know Charlie and more importantly, to like him, and so far, from what Simon had seen of Charlie, he was a nice guy. Josh and Charlie had been going out for a quite a while but this was the first social thing they’d organized. Josh had dragged along Simon and Brian; the three of them worked together at the station house. Charlie had brought along his friends, Greg and Patrick.
Greg seemed a cool guy, and they’d easily slipped into a discussion about football, which helped distract Simon from his thoughts about Patrick. Sort of. His gaze wandered to Patrick again. He seemed to be slightly nervous, given the way he was fiddling with his cutlery.
“Hey, Patrick,” Josh said, and Patrick looked across the table at him. “Charlie tells me you started at the school a month or so ago?”
Patrick put the fork back on the table and reached for his soda.
“Yeah, I’m temping while the administration assistant is on leave. I’m not sure how long I’ll be there, though,” he said before taking a sip of the drink.
“And are you liking the job so far?” Josh asked.
“Oh God, yeah. I love every bit of it.” Patrick’s eyes lit up as he spoke of the job he obviously enjoyed, and Simon found himself wanting to hear more about what made Patrick so happy. “I guess it’s the variety, you know, doing lots of different things every day. It’s never boring. Did Charlie tell you we’re putting on a school play? It’sThe Wizard of Oz.”
At the sound of his name, Charlie turned and joined the conversation.
“Oh my God!” He rolled his eyes. “Welcome to my nightmare.”
