The silence stretched between them, until Patrick pushed himself up onto his elbows. “Yeah, well, we were both probably as bad. I’m sorry I pushed for more when you clearly weren’t interested.”
Will winced at the dejected tone in Patrick’s voice. He could tell him that wasn’t entirely true, but that would only complicate things further, and Will felt like he’d done enough damage. He kept quiet instead, and watched guiltily as Patrick sat up, rubbed at his eyes, and sighed heavily.
When Patrick dropped his hands, he looked more resolved than hurt this time, and he even managed a small smile. Will would take it, even if it didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Come on, then. I’ll help you with your stuff.”
Will led the way out of Ben’s bedroom and into the lounge. “It’s just this.” He gestured to the two suitcases, laptop bag, and rucksack. “One trip will do it.”
“Great,” Patrick mumbled, head down as he walked over and grabbed a case and Will’s laptop bag. He didn’t wait to see if Will followed, and Will scrambled to catch up with him as he heard the front door open.
They stood around awkwardly after loading it all into Will’s car. Patrick had his hands stuffed in his pockets, shuffling from foot to foot and looking desperate to get back inside. Will wanted to pull him in for a hug but didn’t think that would go down too well, so he settled for a slap on the shoulder.
“See you around, I guess.” Patrick gave him a half-hearted wave and stepped back toward the flat.
“Take care of yourself, Patrick.” God, Will almost rolled his eyes at himself. He was only moving around the bloody corner.
Patrick nodded once, then turned and walked back up the path. Will watched him go, wondering why it was so fucking hard to stay where he was and not go after him.
He shook his head to snap himself out of it and got in his car, confident this would all get easier when he had his new house to focus on.
PATRICK MOVEDhis stuff into the spare bedroom on Monday afternoon. He refused to call it Will’s old room, because that pissed him off more. It felt wrong, though.
There were different sheets on the bed, and Patrick’s clutter on all the available surfaces, but somehow Will’s scent lingered in the air, and Patrick kept imagining he could smell Will’s aftershave. God, he was pathetic. Thank fuck he had to go to work later, or he’d probably wallow in self-pity for the whole day.
“For fuck’s sake, Patrick, did somebody die?” Christian almost looked worried as he watched Patrick approach the counter.
Patrick scowled as he tied his apron and joined him at the till. “No, why?”
“Because you have a face like thunder and look like you didn’t sleep at all last night.”
Patrick leaned his hip against the edge of the worktop and sighed. “Will moves into his new house today.”
Christian frowned in apparent confusion. “And?” He smiled at the two young girls who’d just come in and served them quickly before turning back to Patrick. “I don’t get why that’s a problem. At least you’ll have some privacy when Ben gets back.”
Patrick wanted to hit his head on the coffee machine. “Well, that would be great if we were still fucking,” he whispered, suddenly conscious of the half-full shop around them. “I told you it was only for the two weeks, while Ben was away.”
“Well, yeah.” Christian passed him a couple of orders and they both set to work making drinks until the queue died down again. “But that was before. I thought things were going well?”
Ugh. Patrick liked Christian a lot, and his concern was nice and everything, but Patrick didn’t feel much like rehashing the whole thing. He’d come to work hoping to forget about it all for a while. “Well me too, but Will thought it’d be best if we stopped.”
“Fuck, Patrick, why didn’t you say anything last night?”
“I don’t know. Guess I didn’t want to talk about it.”
Christian looked as though he was gearing up for more questions, so Patrick forced a smile and clapped him on the shoulder. “It sucks, but it’s my own fault for getting overinvested.”
“But—”
“Can we not? Please?”
“Yeah, ’course.” Christian nodded, and Patrick turned away to wipe down the sinks, even though they weren’t dirty. Thankfully Christian didn’t call him out on it.
The rest of his shift passed without either of them mentioning Will, so Patrick managed to have quite a good day, despite the shitty start to it. Christian asked him round to his house again after they’d locked up, but Patrick shook his head, explaining that he had to pick Ben up from the airport at some god-awful hour in the morning.
It’d be great to have his brother back, but Patrick was nervous about Ben’s reaction to the Will thing. They’d made a fucking mess of everything, and despite not meaning to, they’d probably stuck Ben right in the middle.
Patrick went to bed early, determined to put his stupid feelings to one side and not let the situation get any more awkward.
HE SLEPTsurprisingly well, and by the time he got to the airport, he was genuinely excited to see Ben come through from baggage claim.
