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Chapter 9
Ian
It was time for us to tackle some hard questions.
“Why the hell are we looking in this side of town?” Well, there was probably a better way to have tackled it, but Cohen looked like he was ready to have Bishop’s head examined. There was no way he was going to let Bishop move into an apartment where the office locked themselves in during the day because they were scared of their own tenants.
Bishop finally looked sheepish as he shrugged and ran his hands over the steering wheel. “Well, I’m having a hard time figuring out a few things.”
Cohen snorted. “Like figuring out where you left your common sense?”
I didn’t laugh.
I was too smart for that, but I did, however, have a bit of a cough.
Bishop just rolled his eyes, but his drama didn’t last long. After a moment, he looked at Cohen and sighed.
Such a cute drama queen.
“Alright, let’s go find a Starbucks or something.” Taking charge seemed to make Cohen happier, and Bishop looked like a weight was being lifted off his chest. “We’re going to look at your list and have a talk about a few things. Like where you want to live.”
That was probably a good idea considering Bishop’s inability to pick reasonable options.
He was a smart guy and there was no way the strange places he’d picked for us to look at had been an accident. But we’d have probably figured out what was going on sooner if we’d done more talking about practical things instead of getting distracted.
As we nodded, Cohen pulled out his phone and started giving directions. The distraction seemed to relax Bishop and he was back to being his usually happy self by the time we pulled into the parking lot.
Getting coffee took another few minutes and by the time we sat down, Bishop looked like he was ready to talk. Setting his coffee down in front of him, he took a breath and looked at us both. “So, yeah, I should’ve talked to you guys more.”
He shrugged, looking sweetly sheepish. “I kept meaning to.”
“But we didn’t help the situation any.” Cohen reached over and squeezed Daddy’s hand. “I knew you needed to talk and I let us keep getting distracted.”
“I wasn’t sure if it was my place to say anything.” Confessing that had my face heating up, but I didn’t want Daddy to think I’d been ignoring his stress.
“It’s everyone’s place.” Cohen gave Daddy and me both stern looks like he wasn’t going to let us ignore things any longer.
It was probably a good thing, but it made me wonder what else he thought we should be talking about.
I wasn’t sure I wanted to know the answer to that.
“Alright.” Going into what seemed to be businessman mode, Cohen leaned back in his chair. “First thing we need to address is location.”
Bishop got a sheepish look before shrugging, realizing he couldn’t argue about that since he was picking so badly.
Cohen took that as permission to continue and nodded. “I know that Bishop was worried about living too close to either of us, but especially you, Ian. I think he saw an apartment in your building or very close because he said he would basically be living below you.”
Huh. I hadn’t even thought about a unit in my building opening up. “Would that be too close?”
Would that be weird?
Maybe.
“Would you be upset with us living so close if it meant I would see him more?” My question to Cohen had him going still and his head cocked to one side.
“I hadn’t thought of it that way.” Cohen gave a half-hearted shrug with one shoulder as he reached for his cup. “I was more worried about you feeling smothered and I think Bishop’s worries were along the same lines.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Bishop nodding as he watched us plan his life. He seemed more comfortable with us talking everything out, so I didn’t feel weird about responding to Cohen. “I think we’d have to work on boundaries, maybe? I don’t know. I’ve never lived close to anyone like that, but it doesn’t worry me if that’s what you’re thinking. Well, it doesn’t worry me beyond making you uncomfortable.”
Was that reasonable?
Cohen didn’t give me much to go on one way or the other. He gave a thoughtful head bob and kept right on going in businessman mode. “I hadn’t thought about it that way, but on a very practical level, you would end up probably seeing each other more. Even just passing each other in the hallway could lead to a scene or a date.”
I wished his tone gave me more to work with, but it didn’t, so I had to push myself to ask for more information. “How does that make you feel?”
He paused, that thinking expression back as he took another sip. I liked how he wasn’t just throwing answers out left and right, but it was stressful.
