Bailey combed his fingers through Derek’s dark strands, his touch affectionate. “How’re you feeling this morning?”
“Um…” Derek laughed quietly. “After what you just did to me—fantastic.”
“That’s not what I’m talking about.” He continued to stroke Derek’s hair. “You had a lot to drink last night… you remember anything about that?”
“Not really. Why? Was I an asshole?”
“No, nothing like that.”
“Did I try to rape you?” Derek smirked.
“Can’t rape the willing.” Bailey chuckled. “But, no, not that, either.”
“Are you going to enlighten me?”
“Well, we sort of… wrestled a bit.”
“Mm. Sounds hot.”
“Not that kind of wrestling.”
Derek frowned. “What do you mean?”
“We wrestled for the phone.”
“The phone?”
Sitting forward, Bailey massaged the back of his neck. “You, uh… you started talking about Patrick, then you got emotional… then pissed off.”
“Pissed off?” Derek sat up. “At who?”
Bailey looked at him. “At God.”
“What?”
“You were drunk,” Bailey murmured. “You got pissed at God and blamed him for Patrick’s issues with dating and sex. You cursed at him a lot, then grabbed my phone to call Patrick—to tell him to tell God to go fuck himself.” He exhaled on a short laugh. “I was fairly certain that wouldn’t score you any brownie points with your dream guy. So, I tried to get you to give me the phone. You refused. And we wrestled for it.”
“Fuck.” Derek flopped back on the bed. “Tell me you got it away from me before I did something fucking stupid?”
“I did. Then I hid it until you passed out.”
“Thankyou.” Derek groaned. “You’re a true friend.” He leaned forward again and turned Bailey’s head, studying his face. “I didn’t hit you or anything, right?”
Bailey smiled. “No. You didn’t get pissed at me, even when I tried to take the phone away.” He gazed at Derek, his smile faltering as sympathy filled his eyes.
“What?”
“You weren’t just cursing God,” Bailey whispered. “You were… you were crying, too.”
Derek swallowed. “Crying?”
“You were that upset about Patrick… convinced he’d written you off for good.”
Releasing a slow, stiff breath, Derek shrugged. “Clearly, he has.”
“You don’t know that. It’s only been a few days.”
“Four. With no word from him.” Derek sensed some of the despair that had apparently been coursing through him last night. “Gideon said that not everyone who runs away is trying to get away… but I think maybe Patrick was.”
