Blessedly, only seconds after Javier sent his message, Desmond replied saying he would absolutely meet Javier for lunch.
Ten minutes later, Javier nearly wept at the beautiful, professional sight of Desmond walking toward him near the entrance to Cabot Place.
“Boy, are you a sight for sore eyes,” Javier greeted him with a smile.
There was a split second of hesitation as the two of them came face to face. All week, they’d pretended that they were a long-term couple. Physical affection had happened as a matter of course. The touches and kisses that had peppered their weekend had been second nature. But now, they stood in the cold, damp, February air, dressed in suits and coifed for work, not quite knowing how they should be with each other.
“Is everything alright?” Desmond asked with stuffy formality that matched the way he’d been in his office pre-Valentine’s Day. When he’d fired his assistant and nearly made the man cry.
For half a heartbeat, Javier wondered if everything they’d shared behind the cozy, closed doors of Desmond’s house had been real.
Another heartbeat later, he didn’t care. He stepped forward, drawing Desmond into his arms and hugging him with a groan that came from the depths of his soul.
“I’ve missed you,” he said, closing his eyes for a moment and breathing in the scent of his weekend lover.
“It’s been five days,” Desmond laughed breathlessly, then stepped back. “You can’t have missed me that much.”
“Oh, but I have,” Javier said, feeling a million times better. “Which one of these cafés or restaurants is your favorite?”
“They’re all pretty good,” Desmond said, studying Javier carefully for a moment.
“Pick one,” Javier said, falling into step beside his man.
He really did feel better just being in Desmond’s presence. Desmond mentioned what he liked about a few of the restaurants they could see, then they picked one and headed toward it. Everything was crowded at that time of day, but Javier didn’t care. Brent might have wanted to “untangle”, but with Desmond sitting across a tiny café table from him, eating a sandwich and ending up with a dollop of mayonnaise on the corner of his mouth, all was right with the world.
“What brings you all the way out here today?” Desmond asked as they ate. “It’s a bit out of your way.”
“I had a client meeting,” Javier explained as he ate his soup.
“And did it go well?” Desmond asked, eyes full of hope.
It meant the world to have someone truly and genuinely on his side, even if he had to disappoint the man by saying, “No, it did not go well. At all.”
The concern in Desmond’s eyes almost made Javier feel whole again. “Is there anything I can do to help?”
Javier paused with his spoon halfway to his lips. Maisy’s suggestion that he ask Desmond for money rang in his ears. The temptation to spill every last one of his problems into Desmond’s lap and ask him to carry some of the emotional burden was there, too. But behind it all was an overwhelming fear. He didn’t want Desmond to know how close his dream business was to failing. He didn’t want the man who looked at him with such lust and longing to find out he was a complete failure.
“You know what, baby,” Javier said, putting his spoon down and reaching over to rest his hand over one of Desmond’s, “let’s not worry about it, okay? Let’s make this lunch all about the two of us. This is a work-free zone.”
“Alright,” Desmond said with a slightly hesitant nod. “If that’s what you think is best.”
“For right now, it is what I think is best.” And because Javier wanted nothing more than to wipe the look of worry clear off of Desmond’s handsome face, he added, “This is our time, for me and you. Whatever shit I have going on at work and whatever the fuck you might be dealing with, let’s just leave it all behind and just be here for each other.”
Desmond smiled and let out a long, soft breath. “I like that,” he said, the powerful executive in him taking a backseat to the man who had made Javier breakfast, twice, and come all over his hand.
Javier grinned and went back to eating, remembering those heated moments between them. “How are your plants?” he asked, wiggling his eyebrows as if he’d asked an entirely different question.
Desmond laughed and blushed, which had Javier glad he was sitting at a table where the sudden tent in his trousers wouldn’t be so noticeable. “Well, they’re?—”
“Desmond!”
The shout shook both Javier and Desmond out of the ridiculous heart-eyes they’d started to make at each other. Javier straightened and turned to find an all-too familiar tall, slim, attractive man with chestnut-brown hair and patrician features striding toward them.
“Matthew,” Desmond snapped in return, his back stiffening so fast Javier was surprised he didn’t hear it pop. “What are you doing here?”
“I work here,” Matthew answered as he came to stand beside the table. The man had the audacity to look angry. Javier didn’t know if he meant he worked in one of the many office buildings around Canada Water or in one of the restaurants or shops.
“Matthew, now is not the time,” Desmond said through a clenched jaw, his blush turning into a flush of anger. “I’m having lunch.”
