CHAPTER TWELVE
WILL FOLLOWEDPatrick inside and wiped his feet on the mat. Patrick turned around to face him, and they stood looking at each other, the silence turning uncomfortable quickly.
Will wiped at the drips steadily falling into his eyes, for something to do, and Patrick sighed.
“Wait there, you’re gonna get the floor all wet.”
Will waited, not daring to move while Patrick marched off to the back of the shop and disappeared around the corner. He heard a door open, some rustling around, and then Patrick came back carrying a small white towel with the coffee shop logo on it.
“Here.” Patrick thrust it out toward him.
“Um….” Will eyed it dubiously, hesitating to take it out of Patrick’s hand. It appeared clean enough, but no way was he going to put that anywhere near his face if it had come out of the toilets.
Patrick sighed and waved the towel in front of Will’s face. “It’s clean, for fuck’s sake. There’s a stack of them in the room out the back.” He frowned, and Will quickly snatched it out of his hand.
“Thanks.”
The last thing Will needed was to piss off Patrick before they’d even started talking. He dried his wet hair and wiped at his face and neck. The rest of him was still soaking, but it would have to do. He handed the towel back to Patrick and noticed the small smile tugging at his mouth. “What?”
“You look all”—Patrick gestured to Will’s hair and his smile grew, crinkling the corner of his eyes—“fluffy.”
Will turned to catch his reflection in the glass and huffed. He did look bloody fluffy—his hair was all over the place, not quite what he’d been going for, but fuck it, if it got Patrick to smile, then he’d take it. He shrugged, faced Patrick again, and smiled back.
“Look,” Will said, wanting to get this over with while Patrick was in a relatively good mood. “I’m so fucking sorry about yesterday.”
Patrick’s smile slipped a little, and Will hurried to explain.
“We’re not back together or anything like that. It was a shit idea to meet him here. I realize that now, and I’m sorry to have put you in that position.” Will bit his lip, waiting for Patrick to say something. He hadn’t finished, not by a long shot, but he wanted at least something from Patrick, some show of interest in what Will had to say before he went any further.
“Ben explained,” Patrick said, after a second or two of studying Will. He scrubbed a hand over his eyes and let out a long breath. “About why you were meeting Darren, I mean.” He let his hand drop and met Will’s gaze. “It was a shit thing to do, bringing him here, though, and you really pissed me off.”
“I know. I’m sorry.”
“You said that.” Patrick fidgeted, glancing down at his shoes, and toeing at a mark on the floor. “But are you sorry because you brought your ex-boyfriend to where your ex-fuckbuddy works, or is there more?”
Will flinched at the words, but after what he’d said to Patrick at the café, he probably deserved it. “I’m sorry for a lot of things.”
“Such as?” Patrick turned to pull one of the chairs down off the table next to them. He motioned for Will to do the same. “I’ve been on my feet all afternoon. I’m not doing this standing up.” He sat down, and Will quickly joined him.
“You were right.” Will shrugged out of his coat and settled back in his chair, making sure to keep eye contact. “About this being serious between us. I panicked when you called me out on it at the café, and I… I reacted badly, and I’m sorry.”
He waited for Patrick to comment, but Patrick sat there watching him, and Will couldn’t read the expression on his face. He wished he knew what Patrick was thinking. Patrick had been the one to take the chance and suggest that they had something worth keeping, and Will had shut him down without hesitation.
It didn’t come as much of a surprise that he was going to make Will work for it. Will just hoped that’s what this was, and not Patrick having changed his mind about him.
The silence eventually became too much, and Patrick fidgeted in his seat before mumbling something to himself and leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees.
“Thanks for the apology,” he said, glancing down at his hands as he linked his fingers together. “But what are you saying exactly? Do you want…?” Patrick looked up, and Will’s breath caught at the raw vulnerability in his expression.
Fuck, he’d put that there. Him and his flat-out refusal to even entertain the idea of them dating. Patrick might be young, but he was far braver than Will had been. Even now, when he wasn’t exactly sure what Will was offering.
Will sat up and took Patrick’s hands in his. “Yeah, I want.” He smiled as Patrick’s breathing hitched and his eyes widened. “I was so fucking stupid to think I could walk away like there was nothing between us, and I’m so sorry that I hurt you.”
Patrick licked his lips, and Will had the strongest urge to pull him forward and kiss him, but Patrick hadn’t said anything yet, and Will needed to make sure they were on the same page.
“I want to do it properly this time. I want to date and take our time and see where this goes.” Will rubbed the back of Patrick’s hand with his thumb, trying to coax the words out of him. “Are you still interested in giving it a go?”
Patrick stared at Will for what seemed like the longest two seconds ever, and then he grinned, his eyes crinkling up at the edges. “Of course I bloody well am.” He batted Will’s hands out of the way and crawled into his lap, the chair protesting loudly at the added weight.
