CHAPTER SIX
BEN HADsent Will a text the night before, telling him to pick up the phone when he called. He had opened the telephone conversation with “Look, I know you’re fucking Patrick.” They’d then gone on to have the most awkward and painful conversation of Will’s life about how Ben knew they were both adults, and he trusted Will with almost anything, but he better not fucking hurt his little brother. And also he never wanted to hear about anything, ever, and Will’s particular favourite, “Jesus Christ, Will, did it have to bePatrick? I thought you didn’t like him likethat. He’s still at uni, for fuck’s sake.”
After promising Ben they both knew what they were doing, which wasn’t exactly true but whatever, Will managed to steer Ben onto more palatable topics like how drunk Ben had been the night before and what embarrassing thing he’d done now.
Ben had ended the call by saying he’d talk to Will later, and Will had been watching his phone for most of the day hoping Ben wouldn’t be offering him any more pieces of advice anytime soon.
When his desk phone rang instead, it startled him so much he snapped his pencil.
“Shit.” He chucked both halves in the bin and then answered the call. “Will Adams.”
“Hi, Will. It’s Sue on the front desk. There’s a Patrick Mason here to see you.”
Will sat up straight at the mention of Patrick’s name. “Thanks, Sue. I’ll be right down.” He grabbed his passcard and took the stairs down to the front desk, all the while wondering what Patrick was doing at his work.
Sue pointed over to the chairs near the windows when Will came through the double doors to reception. Patrick sat doing something on his phone when Will walked over and didn’t notice him until Will stood right in front of him. “Hey.”
“Oh, hey.” Patrick smiled as he got up, tucking his phone in his back pocket. “You um… forgot your lunch, so I thought I’d drop it in.” He held out the wrapped sandwiches Will had made that morning. “You know… to save you having to buy any or anything.” His cheeks were bright red now, clearly embarrassed, and Will realized he probably should say something.
He was a little stunned that Patrick had gone out of his way to bring Will his lunch. He smiled and took the sandwiches from him, to Patrick’s obvious relief. “That’s great, thanks. I hadn’t even realized I’d forgotten them.”
Patrick smiled back and shoved his hands into his pockets, looking all pleased with himself. It made Will want to nudge his shoulder and tease him a little, but then a group of people walked in through the front doors, making them both startle.
“I need to get back to my desk,” Will said, gesturing to the doors behind him. “But thanks for doing this. I really appreciate it.”
“No problem.”
They both stood there staring at each other until Patrick’s phone buzzed, breaking the moment. “Right… um… I’ll see you later, then?”
“Yeah. Bye, Patrick.”
Will watched him go before turning round and heading back upstairs with a warm feeling in the pit of his stomach.
WHENWILLgot back to the flat after work, though, none of the lights were on, a clear sign that Patrick wasn’t home. The place seemed empty with only Will in it, and he put on the TV as soon as he’d taken off his coat, just for some background noise.
Lunch had been ages ago, and Will was starving. He fired off a quick text to Patrick, asking if he’d be back for tea.
Cooking spag bol do you want some?
His phoned pinged with Patrick’s reply as he fetched the ingredients out of the fridge.
Still at the pub. Save me some for later?
Yeah, sure. No problem.
Will set his phone on the counter, a little disappointed to be eating alone but too hungry to dwell on it.
He tried not to think about what Patrick might get up to while he was out. But he couldn’t help it. Will had been there. He knew what it was like to be young and wanting to flirt with anyone who was interested. Not that he was old now, but he didn’t go out on the pull every weekend either.
He reminded himself for the thousandth time that he and Patrick weren’t together. It shouldn’t matter to him if Patrick pulled anyone while he was out. Will kept repeating it in his head for the rest of the night. As most of his mates were away, he settled down with Ben’s Xbox and shot things until well past midnight.
He felt a lot better by the time he crawled into bed, earlier than maybe he normally would have, but Will had no wish to be up when Patrick returned. God only knew what state he’d be in.
UNFORTUNATELYWILLdidn’t get much of a choice. A persistent banging roused him from sleep, and it took him a good few seconds to figure out what was going on.
“What the fuck?” He rubbed the sleep from his eyes and lay there in disbelief that someone was knocking on his front door at—he grabbed his phone to check the time—half past one in the fucking morning. It started up again, and Will cursed under his breath as he flung off his quilt and stalked through the flat to answer the door.
The barely muffled voices on the other side were far too loud, and if Will hadn’t already gathered who it was, he could certainly tell now. He unlocked the door, yanked it open, and hastily stepped back when Patrick practically fell inside.
