“James?” A harrowingly familiar voice questions from his right, where there are now two people coming to an abrupt halt. “What are you doing here?”
Like an unwilling reflex, James finds himself sitting up straight in his seat before he hastily and undignifiedly makes his way to his feet. He’s achingly aware of the pasta sauce in the corner of his mouth. “Paul. What-?”
His gaze flickers to the man standing next to Paul. The man who he now recognizes as the rude patron he bumped into in Paris. Riley, Paul’s current partner. James must not have connected the dots in his panic and hurry. He swallows heavily. Panicked, he glances at Gabriel, who’s getting to his feet in a lot more refined way than he had.
“Finally did it, huh?” Paul’s expression looks friendly enough. It’s almost enough to lessen the force of the scowl of his companion on his right. It would’ve been a genuine question as well, had the underlying tone not been the familiar condescending timbre James has grown accustomed to over the years.
“Yes, I-” He swallows. His throat dries up as his eyes dartaround the room. How does a person react when they come eye to eye with not only the ex that dumped them for someone else, but also with said someone else? For a moment all he can do is blink. “What are you doing here?”
“Well,” Paul waves the comment away, reaching for the man next to him, “you talked so much about this whole experience. We figured it was as good a way as any to celebrate our engagement.”
For a moment the world comes to a halt, only to pick up at twice the speed. It feels like the rug gets pulled from underneath James, but the meaningful glance the two people across from him exchange is evidence enough of the truth of it all. Gabriel’s brief touch to his upper arm breaks him out of his stupor. “Right, uhm, Paul. I don’t think you’ve met Gabriel?” James questions as he wrings his hands together. It’s the only thing he can do to keep the tears at bay. His eyes flick to Gabriel. “And Gabriel. This is Paul. My, uhm-”
“An old friend.” Paul interjects, reaching out a hand to Gabriel, who only looks at it before he looks back to James.
“We’ve met, actually. I believe we’re in the same compartment onThe Evergreen. We bumped into each other yesterday,” says Gabriel, calm and calculated.
“Right.” James blinks. Of course, they were.
Gabriel’s grimace is as clear as day when he glances at Paul. In any other situation James would’ve laughed at the attemptof being civil. “Charmed.”
Paul does an impressive job ignoring Gabriel’s clear dismissal. His companion grumbles something underneath his breath. James figures he should be grateful that he can’t make it out. With a sharp look, Paul’s eyes focus back on him. “And how do you know each other? It’s hard to believe that you’d do this on your own, Jamie.”
“I-”
“We’re celebrating an anniversary, actually. Ten months, and all that.” Gabriel’s voice rings through James’ empty brain for a second. It takes a little longer for the words to register. If only his mind was a little clear, his vision a bit more focused, he would’ve enjoyed taking in Paul’s sour face with more clarity.
6 [James] Venice, Italy
December 5th
“Just get in the damn boat, Jamie,” Gabriel grumbles from where he’s standing in the shallow little canal boat. When Gabriel reaches out to him, the boat rocks, turning up James’ reluctance of getting into said vessel even more.
He swallows, looking away. “You know what? I’d rather not.”
“You’re going to regret leaving Venice tonight and not having gone in one of these. I just know it.” Gabriel makes a soft victorious sound when he manages to grab hold of James’ jacket sleeve. “And I, for one, don’t want to hear you complain about it.”
“But-” James eyes the slowly rocking wooden boat dubiously. Gabriel is right. It’s on his Venice list. On top of his list, actually. It, however, looked a lot safer online. Now it just looks like a visit to the emergency room waiting tohappen.
A gust of wind has him burrowing deeper into his coat. The cold air feels cutting in its frigidness, this close to the waterline, and he doesn’t even want to imagine what it would feel like being on the water.
“Besides, isn’t this something couples do together? Go on a romantic paddle through the canals?” Gabriel’s smile takes on a wicked edge.
James’ eyebrows furrow. “We’re not a couple, though.”
“I know that. You know that. The people looking at us, however, don’t.”
James turns in the direction Gabriel briefly glanced. He finds Paul and Riley a little ways away on the dock. He grinds his teeth. The anger, and quite frankly, the embarrassment that’s been brewing inside of him since last night hasn’t lessened at all.
The shocked, disapproving look that settled on Paul’s face the night prior made up for it a little. He clearly thought James wouldn’t be able to move past their relationship falling apart in the less than ideal way it had. In theory, James’ hadn’t. He moved on from Paul, that much was true. But how well do you move on from giving the best of yourself to someone for close to ten years, only to be humiliated in such a way that you’re afraid to show your face to your own family?
Paul didn’t have any right to be mad at James for havingmoved on. Especially not now that he’s here with the exact person he left James for. Engaged to be wed, nonetheless.
And while it is true that James still feels the lingering effects of the relationship, he’s also more than certain that what he feels for Gabriel could actually be more than just reluctant friendship. It’s definitely more than the fake dating scheme Gabriel has somehow come up with.
When they were finally able to leave the restaurant last night, after an excruciating ten minutes of small talk, Gabriel confessed to not knowing why he’d done it. He just hadn’t liked the way Paul spoke to James. He thought Paul was the biggest asshole on the planet and how dare he insinuate that James wouldn’t be able to do this on his own. James felt like there might be more to the story, but he was too rattled to pry for more.
In the end, they settled on keeping this charade, or whatever Gabriel wanted to call it, up for the time being. James figured that it might as well keep Paul away from him, which is a relief in itself. It might also help keep his mind off the fact that his ex is here with his new fiancé, on the trip that he said he’d never go on.
