Page 23 of Love Language

Marco grunted and reluctantly let him go. He curled into his pillow, drifting between sleep and wakefulness, while he waited for him to return.

It was only when he felt the distinctive shutter of his front door slamming closed that he jolted awake.

And by then it was too late.

◆◆◆

Marco forced himself to concentrate on the logo he was working on and stop looking at his phone.

Greg hadn’t texted him back, and that was absolutely his right. It was, well, honestly, kind of shitty. But Marco had known going into it that it was probably just a one-time thing and that Greg was dealing with some heavy stuff.

Greg didn’t owe him anything.

But a text back would have been nice.

He turned back to his monitor, reasonably pleased with what he saw there. He was on final edits for this project, and usually he liked this part.

The customer, the owner of a small gym in the neighborhood, had not only let him hang a flyer on her corkboard, but asked him to design the logo for her new business. She’d been awesome about enunciating clearly so that they could communicate, and he felt good about supporting another small business owner in the neighborhood.

Once he finished the last draft of the logo, he planned on bringing her a copy in person and joining the gym.

This was why he’d quit working for the wretched corporate conglomerate and started off on his own. He liked people, and he liked providing what they were looking for.

At his old job, there had been too many layers of communication between him and his clients. Or maybe just one shitty layer of communication with his boss promising additional rounds of revision that surprisingly required Marco to spend time making them.

But now he was a free man.

After today, he could put this logo up on his website for advertising, bringing his satisfied clients up to a grand total of four.

It was slow going, but he had a bit of savings, and he’d eventually build up a client base.

He looked at his phone. No text.

He wasn’t supposed to be thinking about last night.

Yeah, right. Greg had just been so… open. So trusting. With his history and with his body. With his willingness to take a risk with Marco, and his confidence that Marco could give him what he needed.

And watching him… golden skin crossed by dark ropes swept through Marco’s mind. Greg’s heaving chest. The way he’d let Marco arrange his limbs, peacefully and ecstatically.

Just thinking about it was making it difficult to get any work done.

Aaaaaaaand… Work. Right.

He made the final two tweaks the gym owner had asked for, making one of the curves extend up a little higher and swapping out the font for one that was just slightly fuller. She had a good eye, actually.

She’d also asked for a color change, from blue to more of a teal. He thought it would work, but with her logo he wondered if something that popped, like orange or yellow, would be better. He’d mentioned it and she hadn’t said no, but he wasn’t sure if she was appalled and being polite or wanted to see the options.

He shrugged and saved three different versions. If she hated the other colors, it had only taken him a second, and he certainly wouldn’t be offended.

He knew that he should get started on another project. He planned on both creating some mock-ups for fake businesses and also taking some jobs on one of those sites where you bid yourself out for projects.

He’d heard that a lot of people did well that way. Some people just used it to get started and others made a whole career out of it. You had to be fast, though, and feel comfortable with work that was solid, but not excellent. He felt like he fell somewhere in between, so it would be a good adventure.

Right now, though, he was having trouble sitting still.

Was Greg alright? Was he regretting what they had done? Sitting at home alone, wallowing in guilt over his departed Dom? Feeling eaten by grief for betraying his memory?

Greg clearly hadn’t wanted to stay, or he wouldn’t have snuck out on the excuse of using the restroom. But Marco had a feeling that their evening together had ripped open a lot of feelings, and he felt horrible for causing him pain like that.