Page 30 of Smart Ass

Ben didn’t roll his eyes. Much. Where Evan could see him.

“Evs, if you proposed to him tomorrow, he’d have your wedding planned and scheduled for Tuesday.”

Evan clung to Ben’s hand. “Do you think so? We… We had a fight. Right before… everything.”

“So kiss and make up.” Obviously. Evan and Quincy were fucking meant for each other. Two squishy little marshmallows of happiness and light, who were so gaga over each other it made Ben kind of want to hurl. Like, they couldn’t go three sentences without talking about each other. He was pretty sure that if they didn’t have to work, they’d never spend any time apart.

“What if he isn’t interested in me?”

“Dude, really? He likes your llamas.” Ben kind of snorted after that. He still didn’t know what that meant, but he really, really hoped he was saying something dirty.

“Really?” Evan turned to him with wide, hopeful eyes. “He said that?”

Jesus fuck, they were besotted with each other.

“He said that,” Ben answered, perfectly straight-faced.

“Did you know that I ordered him a rotary cheese grater?”

No, Ben did not know that. Because… what? Maybe that was supposed to be kinky? “No…” he said out loud.

“I did. I didn’t even get to give it to him.”

“You can give it to him once he’s back. I’ll pick it up if I need to.”

“Oh, thank you, Ben!”

“Uh huh.” Ben patted Evan’s hand, ready to settle in for a long evening of Talking About Quincy.

At least this time, it was about someone who was truly worthy of Evan’s (and therefore Ben’s) time.

Which made Ben kind of wonder what it would be like to have someone who cared about him that much.

Evan was the closest person to him in the whole wide world, and he wasn’t even a little bit jealous that his bestie had found his perfect man.

He was actually so damned happy for the two of them that it kind of hurt sometimes.

Like now.

He just wanted… he wanted Quincy and Evan to work out so that he could know it was possible.

Some stupid little part of him that watched a staggering number of rom-coms in Evan’s living room wanted to know that relationships could really work. That people could be happy with each other, even after that big kiss scene at the end of the movie, and just go about their everyday lives buying each other rotary cheese graters.

They talked (about Quincy, obvs) until it got late. Or at least late for Evan, who was used to sleeping at night. He looked like he could hardly focus his eyes, his lids fluttering closed every few seconds.

“Mmm tired,” Evan told him, yawning.

That made Ben yawn, too, and he rubbed his eyes. Fuck, this had been a really long day. His internal clock was all messed up from being awake at the wrong times. “You can sleep,” he told Evan. “The nurses are going to wake you up every couple hours, but you can sleep now.”

Evan’s eyes closed. Ben brushed his hair back from his face, hoping he wasn’t hurting him. Evan turned a little, nuzzling toward him.

Really, it was Quincy who should be there with Evan. They should both be together. Taking care of each other.

Ben could take care of himself. Always had.

He brushed through Evan’s hair again. “I’m gonna head into work, but I’ll check on Quincy, okay? I’ll be back tomorrow.”

“Thanks, Ben.”

“G’night.”

“Night.”

Ben waited until Evan fell asleep, and then tiptoed out.

As he rode down the elevator, he let his shoulders slump. Today had just been… a lot.

The impulse rose to just walk out of the hospital, find some friends, and get trashed. Booze, electrostims, bar fights, it didn’t matter. Some video games, at least?

Or, god, he could really do with a visit to the club. There was nothing like losing himself under someone’s whip, floating in subspace until all his problems went away.

He should probably eat, but that sounded too overwhelming. Or, like, take a nap or something. He’d missed most of his sleep earlier.

He knew he wasn’t going to, though.

Not if there was an itty-bitty tiny chance that Max had caught the spark.