“All yours,” Flynn said. “Should be plenty of hot water left. Pressure’s good for a third floor apartment, too.”
“Give me a minute to wake up so you don’t have to drag me out of there passed out,” Zach said. He was often in danger of falling asleep under the warm spray of the shower in the morning.
“What makes you think I wouldn’t just leave you there?” Flynn asked, laughter in his eyes.
“Literally everything you’ve done up until now,” Zach said. “You’re one of the good guys. You can’t fool me.”
“I’m glad you think so, because I was actually gonna ask you a favor,” Flynn said.
“Anything,” Zach responded without hesitating. Flynn had done so much for him already.
Besides, a favor would be an excuse to see him again, or at least talk to him.
“Sure you don’t wanna hear it before you agree without conditions?” Flynn asked, his eyes sparkling with laughter.
“You wouldn’t ask me for anything… weird,” Zach said. “I trust you.”
“Well… thisisa little weird, but I guess I might as well just ask. There’s a networking… thing, this weekend. Kind of a local meetup for people in my industry. It’d be nice to go, I guess, but I’d rather not go alone. It’s really casual and I was thinking about what you said last night about there being perks to being married, and I guess maybe the ring would do most of the job, but…”
“I’ll come,” Zach interrupted, not wanting Flynn to feel the need to keep rambling nervously. “That’s what you were about to ask, right?”
“Right, yeah,” Flynn looked down at his feet, and for reasons unknown to Zach,blushed.
He was ridiculously pretty when he blushed, especially since he was looking down, long, dark eyelashes stark against his cheeks.
Damn.
Flynn was the hot brother. Aiden was a pale imitation.
And Flynn was thenicebrother, too, which might have been contributing to Zach’s opinion of how hot he was.
“Well, I’ll come with you. I haven’t got anything better to do,” Zach said.
Besides, he’d been right. This meant the chance to spend more time with Flynn, and that was a chance he wanted to take.
He knew how stupid it was. He knew he didn’t stand a chance. But he still wanted to be close to Flynn, because he felt safe and loved and supported around him, and he hadn’t felt that in a while.
He hadn’t realized until Aiden left how much he’d been left to supporthim. Their relationship had been give and take, in the sense that Zach gave and Aiden took, and took, until he had everything he wanted and then just… left.
And it stung. It still stung, when he thought about it, but Flynn… Flynn soothed the sting.
And maybe he shouldn’t have been letting himself be comforted by his ex’s older brother, but Flynn didn’t seem to mind comforting him at all. He just did it as though it was the most natural thing in the world. He was the man Aidencouldhave been, the one Zach had told himself he was, deep down, and maybe one day that would be true.
But Flynnwasthat man right now, and Zach had been thinking about how desperately he wanted a man like that for a very long time.
He was way past the point of having acrushon him, and it was maybe time he accepted that. Not that it made any difference. Flynn was straight.
Zach could still enjoy his company, though. Friends were just as good to have as boyfriends. Better, even.
“I’ll buy you dinner,” Flynn offered, as though Zach hadn’t already agreed. “I mean, the whole afternoon is on me, promise.”
“Did you not hear the part where I agreed?” Zach asked, confused.
Flynn wet his lips. “I had a whole series of bribes thought up. I wasn’t expecting you to just… completely agree without getting anything in exchange.”
“You married me just so I could go back to school,” Zach said, blinking at him. “Dude. You don’t owe me anything and I owe you everything. You don’t need to bribe me.”
Flynn smiled wryly. “Yeah, well. You’re not the only one with a weird ex,” he said.
