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He stepped back, pressing himself to the open door to allow Diego to pass. When Frankie turned around, he saw that Seth and Obie were gone.
“I’m so sorry this took so long,” Diego murmured. He turned to face Frankie and he finally noticed Diego was holding a thick manila envelope.
“What is ‘this’?” Frankie asked skeptically.
“Well… I hope it's a way for us to be together?” Diego said looking sheepish but also so very hopeful.
Frankie cocked a brow and slowly walked over to the couch. They sat down on opposite sides and Diego started pulling out documents.
“I had to wait for our lawyer’s office to open on Monday and then it took a full business day for him to make the proposed changes. Obviously, none of this is official until you sign it but—”
“And what exactly is it that I’m signing?” Frankie interrupted, apprehension prickling his skin.
“Uh, it’s basically all our business documents rewritten with additional clauses that would allow one of us to buy the other out, no questions asked, no additional legal proceedings, no problems, if we… broke up, or otherwise wanted to terminate our… partnership,” Diego said. He glanced up at Frankie with a naked vulnerability that nearly took Frankie’s breath away.
“So, in essence, you’re asking me to sign a prenup?” Frankie asked, trying for light and teasing, but instead sounding rather acerbic.
Diego’s face fell and he began to fidget nervously with the papers. God, Frankie was doing this to him. Diego had always been so confident and sure, but everything to do with them as a couple seemed to throw Diego off kilter. Could they risk that happening with their business too?
“Um, yeah, I guess that is in essence what it is, but, just like a prenup isn’t a bad thing, this isn’t a bad thing either? It means I… I want to be with you Frankie. So badly, and I want to protect this thing we’re creating together in case… in case you don’t end up wanting to be with me long term–”
“Or you get tired of my slutty, undergraduate ways.” Again, Frankie sounded petty and mean, not funny and witty like he normally strove for when he was around Diego.
Diego grimaced and dropped his head. “Frankie I… I’m so sorry if I said anything that night that hurt you, or if I’ve said anything in the past that has hurt you. You mean the world to me and I hold you in the absolute highest regard. You are truly the only person I have ever wanted to be with and I’m just trying to figure out how to make both our business and our relationship work.”
Why was Frankie fighting this? It made sense, in theory. Just like a prenup wasn’t a statement on either party’s confidence in the relationship, these safeguards weren’t either. But why did it feel like Diego trusted him enough to go into business with him, but not to run the business as partners in every sense of the word?
“What if I just back out of the business now? Then we could just date like normal people and—”
“No! Frankie, no I… that’s not what I want. That is quite literally the exact opposite of what I want. I want to start a business with you. I’ve wanted that for almost two years now.”
“But, you don’t trust me. Otherwise, why would you already be preparing for the worst when we haven’t even had a chance at the best.”
“I do trust you, Frankie! That’s not what this is about! We just have to safeguard the business for you, me, and Obie.”
Frankie had to move. He stood up and started pacing around the room, his chest clenching even tighter every time he looked at the paperwork. God, why couldn’t Diego just love him? Love him with a stupid blind faith just like Frankie did. Just like he’d been doing since he agreed to go into business with him.
Frankie slowed to a stop and hung his head. That was it, wasn’t it? Frankie was already head over heels for Diego, something he’d never felt before, and Diego was being his normal, levelheaded self and had to approach everything, including Frankie’s heart, with a plan.
Diego was watching him like a rabbit eying a wolf. Frankie abruptly stopped right in front of him. Diego flinched in surprise.
“D,” Frankie whispered.
“Franklin,mi querido,please. I don’t know what else to do, or what you want me to say. I want to be with you, and I want to own an inclusive coffee shop with you where kids and other people like me and like you can have somewhere to go and feel safe, unlike how I felt my entire childhood and most of my adult life. I want to do this with you, Frankie, please!”
Frankie slowly sank down until he was kneeling on the floor in front of Diego. Diego kicked the coffee table back and practically threw himself onto the floor, knotting his hands in Frankie’s shirt and pressing their foreheads together. Frankie closed his eyes and took in a deep, calming breath.
“I want you too, Diego. I was practically begging you on Saturday.”
“And now I am literally on my knees beggingyou. Please, Franklin, forgive me for taking a little longer than I should have. I’ve been living with these feelings for so long… truly longer than I think you’ve even liked me. Since that first day in class, I knew there was something about you, and it’s only gotten stronger throughout these past three years of friendship. Ireallylike you,querido.”
Frankie opened his eyes and took a moment to savor the burgundy color mottling Diego’s cheekbones. “You know I say I love you all the time.”
Diego frowned. “I know, and I’ve treasured every single one of those ‘I love yous.’ I… I love you as a friend too, Frankie. But I can’t just casually say it like you do. Is that what you need to hear? That I’ve grown to love you as a friend, and I want time to see if my feelings turn into actual, romanticamor? Because Franklin, that's what I want.”
Tears Frankie had been doing his damndest not to shed for three full days, from the moment he saw stupid Emilio touchinghisDiego, returned to his eyes full force, and when he blinked, they spilled over.
“Querido.”
