Merrick grimaced, bouncing his head from side to side like he had something to say but was again, for the second time in his life, not willing to say it. Holden provided the answer for them both. “I know you think your brother is…I don’t know, a slut or something.”
He hated to use that word, but it was the most accurate one to what Merrick had, on more than one occasion, implied.
“He’s not,” Holden said. “I mean, maybe he was before, but not with me.”
“I like working here is all,” Merrick said. “I don’t want him to mess up my work.”
Holden bristled, failing to make the correlation. “How would that happen?”
“If he does something bad to you,” Merrick explained.
“What if I do something bad to him?” Holden suggested. “What if I’m the one who ruins it?”
Just the thought of losing Bryce was a knife in his chest, but he had to play through the hypothetical situation to prove his point to Merrick.
“Why would you?”
“Why would he?”
Merrick sighed heavily, shrugging. “I just want him to be happy, and I also want to be happy. I’m happy working here.”
“And he’s happy being with me,” Holden said. “But you should talk to him about that.”
“Don’t need to,” Merrick said with a laugh.
“Oh, so you save all your talking for me?”
“This is the most I’ve ever heard you say, now that you mention it, but no. I sent him a text a lot like the one I sent you, and we’re already good. Bryce knows me, knows how I am.”
“He knows you love him,” Holden supplied.
Merrick nodded, and the upstairs door to Riggs’s apartment opened. “So we’re good?”
Holden held out his hand and Merrick shook it. “We’re good.”
“Who’s good?” Riggs asked, coming downstairs and tugging a hoodie over his head.
“Holden is sleeping with my brother,” Merrick announced, wheeling his stool back to the other side of his station.
Holden’s cheeks burned, and he rolled back to his side while doing his best to avoid Riggs’s curious stare.
“That’s…something,” Riggs said.
Holden nodded, pulling his phone out of his pocket to text Bryce. He had no idea when the conversation between Bryce and Merrick had taken place, but it couldn’t have been too long ago. Bryce had spent the whole weekend at Holden’s apartment, mostly in various stages of undress with varying volumes of cuminside of his body, and it was with the most reluctance that Holden had peeled himself away from his boyfriend to come to work and face his brother.
things are good here with Merrick
Bryce sent him back a selfie, lounging on Holden’s couch with one arm folded behind his head. He wasn’t wearing a shirt and he hadn’t shaved the whole time they’d been together. Three days of scruff lined Bryce’s jaw, and it was less than two hours ago Holden had nibbled his way from Bryce’s chin to his ear, their bodies pressed together still naked and warm.
Bryce
knew they would be.
I love your couch btw.
Holden typed out a message and hesitated before sending it, only to delete it and rewrite it three times before he finally found the courage to press the send button. Off it went and Holden set his phone face down on his station before Bryce had any time to reply.
“Merrick, what’re your books like today?” Riggs asked, frowning down at his own phone. The look didn’t necessarily mean something was wrong; Riggs just generally had that look about him unless his boyfriend Smith was around.
