Thinking back to what he said to Sam, Rico remembered that he was talking about the past, not the future. Even if Mitch took what he said the wrong way, he could have talked to him about it instead of just lashing out. But maybe what he heard was only an excuse so Mitch could take back what he said this morning.
That night while Rico slept in the rose sitting room, there was no midnight visit from Mitch. Everything was quiet, but Rico slept fitfully, dying to go upstairs and shake Mitch awake, or maybe wake him with a blowjob.
His pride wouldn't let him. The possibility of Mitch angrily kicking him out was too horrifying to consider. Rico wasn't willing to risk a humiliation like that no matter how much he yearned for the man.
In the morning, feeling miserable, he dragged himself off to put in a shift at the café. Yesterday Rico got to feel happy about how things were going for less than a day. Then this thing hit. It didn't make him feel hopeful. Things with Mitch got derailed so easily. Rico thought they had a breakthrough, but now Mitch was distancing himself from him again.
While Rico wiped down the counter after the breakfast rush, Sam came over to him. "You were cheerful the last time I saw you and today you look like this. What is it? A fight with Mitch?"
Wrapped in gloom, Rico was about to say it was, but then he thought about it. "I wouldn't call it that. I'd call it just the way things are."
"Probably a fight," Sam insisted stubbornly then tried to give him a pep talk. "You're very different. It makes sense that you would have a few things to iron out."
Rico denied it. "No. It's not like that. I made too much of this thing with Mitch. I'm nothing to him. I'm just something he's test-driving to see if he likes doing it with guys. Now he might just be done with me and ready to throw me away," Rico claimed and wondered how much truth there was in what he said.
Sam frowned. "Mitch doesn't seem like that kind of man. I can't believe he's someone who discards people."
"You can have your blind faith. I'll just look at the facts," Rico told him.
"You're so gloomy. Do you always get like this about guys or is it just Mitch?" Sam wondered.
"No. Other guys don't do this to me. I got in too deep with Mitch. I got sucked in and now I'm paying for it. I did tell you guys with kids were bad news," Rico reminded him. "That's what this fight was about actually. Mitch thinks I don't like kids."
"Who doesn't like kids?" Wyatt asked popping up next to them all of a sudden. He kissed Sam on the cheek and they smiled at each other.
"This guy," Rico said and pointed to himself while glaring at the two of them with their faces together, being so happy.
"Since when?" Wyatt asked. "You and Sammy have been best friends since you met."
"She's a sweet kid," Rico said with a shrug.
"You get along with the boys too," Sam pointed out.
"They're sweet kids too," Rico said.
"So what kids don't you like exactly?" Wyatt asked him.
"Kids of hot guys that I don't know," Rico stammered.
"You have a well thought out philosophy," Wyatt needled him.
"Fine. Maybe that was just a snap judgment I made when I didn't know any better," Rico allowed. "But Mitch thinks I still feel that way."
"Maybe you should explain that to him," Sam suggested.
"Grovel, you mean?" Rico didn't want to explain himself. Why couldn't Mitch give him the benefit of the doubt? If he cared about him, he would. He'd fight to keep him, not jump at every chance to push him away.
As he went to the Dunbar house to do some work, Rico dreaded seeing Mitch again—his angry face, the glowering look in his eyes. At the same time he ached to see him, craved it like some kind of sweet agony. This thing with Mitch had turned him into such a moron.
When he arrived, Sammy was in the back yard chasing the kittens around in the grass. Mitch was further on, already working on putting up the new fence to close off the back yard from the wilder areas beyond. At first Mitch didn't notice Rico as he arrived, but then he heard him talking to Sammy. Mitch gave him a quick glare then he continued working.
Rico's first instinct was to go over there and tell him off, but he sat in the grass instead. He wouldn't go over until he cooled off a little. Playing with the kittens should do that.
While Sammy was running around with Veronica, he picked up Natalie. She was looking at him funny though, like she was calling him a coward for not confronting Mitch.
"You're a cat. You don't get to judge me," Rico told her and she meowed.
Running over just in time to hear him, Sammy asked, "Was she judging you, Rico?"
