Good Together (6 page)

Adam

"Did you try calling him?" Hayley asked. It was two days after that awkward date.

"Of course I did. I must have called him twenty times and left half as many messages. He's just not answering or calling me back." I was sitting on the floor of the back office room of the shop, frustrated, hurt, and disappointed. I wanted to turn back time and fix things. Only I didn't even know what I'd done wrong in the first place.

"Wow, you've made that bad of an impression?" She whistled.

"It's not funny. I have no idea what I did wrong. He's just not answering his damn phone. It's like we're at the very beginning again and he's ignoring me just because I don't fit the mold." I hit my head against the wall.

"I don't know what to tell you, brother. It's not like I've ever been in a situation like that, besides, Troy seems like a really messed up guy and I honestly have no idea what you even see in him." Hayley huffed, and I could hear she was smoking again by the way she exhaled.

"You're at it again? Damn it Hayley! You promised you would quit for good." I pushed off the wall and hugged my knees.

"Calm down. It's just one smoke. It's hard to just go cold turkey. This is the first one I've had in two weeks. Give me a break." I could tell just by the sound of her voice there was no budging her so I tapped my forehead against my knee from utter helplessness. I couldn't do anything about her habit, I couldn't make Troy answer his phone and there was no fucking way for me to leave my past in the past and just accept the cards I'd been given.

"Just don't take it up again. I don't think either the boys or me could handle something happening to you," I pleaded, my voice muffled by my jeans. It might not have been a drug habit, but I was cancer scared enough to keep pressuring her into quitting.

"I already promised, didn't I? I'll do my best to quit for good. And you take care of yourself. Forget about that boy and find someone worthy of you. You're too fucking old to pine for someone who doesn't want you."

He words stung enough that I looked up even knowing I would see nothing but the door in front of me. "Who're you calling old, you bitch?" I protested.

"Touchy. That's what you get when you can just about spit to forty." She laughed at me and hung up.

Huffing I stood up and cracked my spine, rearranging my bones after the awkward position. It was time to get back to work and if I was lucky I would forget about Troy for a few hours.

*~*~*

At what was almost closing time, a voice startled me enough I felt the cold sweat pebbling on my skin. I moved away from the client in fear that I'd messed up the tattoo. Seeing that everything looked all right I turned around and saw Gabriel behind me looking sheepish.

"Sorry, man. I thought you heard me and Jill talking." He lifted his hand to the back of his neck and rubbed self-consciously.

"Yeah, I didn't. Try and avoid it in the future," I mumbled, thinking about the tattoo when it occurred to me that G might know a thing or two about Troy. "Hey, G," I called since he was already halfway to the front of the parlor.

"Yeah?" He turned looking at me.

"Could you stay for maybe twenty minutes until I'm done? I'd like to talk to you."

"Sure. I'll just hang out in the front and you can come get me." I nodded while he turned and walked away.

I finished the tattoo with barely any concentration left. It was a late hour for me already, and I had a lot on my mind. Gabriel was probably my last hope. Packing things away, I hurried to the front and asked Jill if she could close for me again. I assumed Zach had Archer again and things were difficult enough even without a kid to demand all your attention.

Soon enough, the two of us were outside heading toward the closest bar. I felt like I could use a drink and it couldn't hurt to ease G's suffering while he listened to my heartache.

"So what's up?" he asked when we had our drinks in hand.

I took a deep breath, trying to ease into it, but no words came to mind and what popped out of my mouth wasn't anything I planned. "Can you tell me what the fuck is Troy's problem?"

G lifted his hands in the air and leaned back, "Wow. Hostile much?"

"Sorry." I ducked my head, still cradling my drink.

"Can you elaborate a bit? I don't know what even seems to be the problem."

I sighed, wishing he could just understand it without me having to say the words. "We met accidentally about a week ago and started talking, admitted some stuff. Things seemed good, like he might be into me, you know?" I looked at G who nodded in understanding. "But then we went on a date and things just seemed to go wrong. Nothing spectacular, just slightly awkward, at least in my book. He was clumsy and kept staring, but I figured it was the beard, or lack thereof. But then at the end he spilled his drink over me and got all flustered and ran away. Just like that, he was gone. I've been trying to call him, text him, but he's not giving me the time of day."

"He really did a number on you, didn't he?" G asked, looking at me with pity.

"I don't know. I really liked him, you know? Even when he was cold toward me and seemed uninterested, I still thought there could be something between us. Something good. Shit, I still think so, but I have no idea where his head's at and it's driving me insane." I looked around the bar absentmindedly as I took a sip.

"You want me to tell you about my experience with him? Is that why I'm here? Or did you just need a friendly face?" Gabriel tilted his head as he waited for my answer.

"Both, I guess. Although I probably would have said the former an hour ago." I chuckled self-depreciatory. "Now I'm just glad to have someone to talk to." I rubbed my fingers over my eyes. I was so tired of the drama and felt like I was a teenager.

"Troy was nothing like that while we were together. Insecure on occasion, sure, and he had his little ticks. But he was never really clumsy, nor did he run away from a date. But you have to take into account that we weren't together for all that long. A few weeks with sporadic dates. Hell, we only even got to third base, but maybe that was more me than him." G shook his head as if dispelling a thought. "I can tell you for sure that he's direct. He might not like sharing and explaining, but when he does he doesn't beat around the bush. All the while that we were together, I always knew where I stood with him. Even when he broke up with me he was down to the point despite the hurt I could see on his face. So it's a bit of a mystery to me as well. I don't have a clue what might be up with him."

"Maybe he doesn't feel there's a connection between us, and wants to end it quickly and with as little pain as possible," I mused, completely lost by now.

"It could be." G hesitated before continuing. "Did you consider that perhaps the two of you just aren't right for each other? Maybe you're seeing something that just isn't there."

And maybe I would have just dismissed it, trusting my own mind and intuition more than people who were on the sidelines watching, but two people telling me pretty much the same thing in the same day was enough to shake even my confidence. So I did do my best to put Troy out of my mind, and trusted G to get me drunk and stay sober enough to see me home.

*~*~*

"Come on sleepyhead. It's time to stretch those old bones and head to the gym." I felt the covers sliding over my bare ass and grumbled something indistinguishable at my friend Noah's annoying voice.

"It's not that I don't appreciate that body but up you go, ex pro hockey player! Don't make me use extreme measures," he sing-songed and I moaned in pain.

"That's what you get when you drink without me. Now up! I have to maintain this body if I don't want to collapse during my next concert and you're my trainer. Get up!" He yelled and I pushed myself out of the bed, as I rubbed my eyes.

"Go take care of that," I squinted at him and saw him pointing at my crotch and the half-awake cock, "And shower. I'll find something for you to wear."

"You're way too casual about my naked body. Zach should kick your ass," I grumbled as I crossed the distance to the bathroom.

"Please, bitch. He knows I like to look and have him fuck it out of me." Groaning at his words I slammed the door shut and climbed into the shower.

"Here's some water and Advil, and I've made some eggs." He pushed it at me as I got out of shower.

"I don't think I can stomach eggs," I mumbled as I drained the water bottle.

"You know they're good for you, and since you're skipping workout to order me around, you'll eat something and nurse more water." Noah gave me my clothes and left for the kitchen.

Sometimes it was like having my mother hovering over my head. But he'd probably called a couple of times and gotten worried when I didn't answer my phone. Not that I had any idea where my phone even was.

Despite my bitching, I ate with him and I drank more water, and by the time we got to the gym I felt like I could even manage a light workout. Every once in a while I went through the paces with Noah, to help him stay in shape and keep his body, something I figured he gave too much importance to. But then again, Noah had always been somewhat vain and I loved him despite of it.

"So what had you drinking in the middle of the week?" He eventually asked as he lifted weights.

"I didn't have kids today," I said absentmindedly, watching him in case he hurt himself.

"That's bullshit and you know it." He grunted as he lifted.

"Fine. My date went to shit and Troy hasn't been answering my phone calls or texts." I pulled up the weight and pointed him at the track.

"Don't you think it's time to just let the guy go?" He turned and looked me in the eye as he spoke.

"It might be," I reluctantly admitted.

"Good. While I do support the attitude of never giving up on someone and trying your best to get what you want, at this point he's either interested or he isn't. You can't force him to like you or date you." A guy caught Noah's attention and asked for an autograph. I looked around us and waved to one of the trainers. We paid good money not to be disturbed in that particular gym and while there were guys who recognized even me, they never approached us, since it was pretty much against the rules unless we were on our way in or out of the gym. Noah still signed, barely paying any attention, he was so used to it. But the moment he was done, the trainer took the guy aside and explained.

"You're right. I do have to make my peace with it. I have no idea why I'm even so stuck on Troy. It's driving me insane and that's not like me."

"Everyone falls eventually. You've just had the bad luck of falling for the wrong guy. Don't worry, there is someone for you out there. You gonna run, too?" he asked as he set the track.

"I might as well. It might clear my mind." I climbed up to the one next to him.

"That's the spirit." Noah grinned at me before focusing forward and running.

Troy

Time dragged at first. My mind was filled with unuttered questions of what might have happened if I'd picked up the phone just once, or if I'd answered one of the many texts Adam had sent. Countless possibilities passed through my head of what could have happened between us, how well we could have fit together.

I regretted it. The way I'd covered my head with a pillow, not unlike a child hiding from trouble and kept convincing myself it wasn't my phone ringing. The way I'd deleted so many of his texts without even reading them, and how I pretended that those I did read, didn't break my heart not even a bit.

Still, a part of me felt anything but regret. It was the right thing to do. To just stop before either of us could get hurt. To stop acting as if I deserved someone as good as Adam, or that I deserved someone to genuinely care for me. In the end, I probably did do the right thing.

So even as I read,
I miss you. Please answer the phone, text me, anything. Just tell me what I did wrong. Please?
I imagined those words had been written for someone else. I told myself that every
We can be great together. Company to each other during those long nights, support when the world pushes us down…
was bordering on stalker behavior instead of expressing an outline of a dream. I stomped on Adam's every word, as I struggled to move on, to convince myself I couldn't have gone about it in any other way.

I allowed the days to turn into weeks. Michael's calls were gently rebuffed and Gabriel's invitations postponed. Then a month had passed and over half of a second one, the invites stopped and I found myself missing them.

I'd taken work home on too many nights and buried myself in numbers over entire weekends that it was hard to remember a time when my life had been different and when it had been all right to seek company and comfort.

"Work drone!" Kay startled me as she knocked loudly against my slightly open office door. "Are you coming?"

"Where?" I looked at her somewhat owlishly not even sure what day it was let alone the occasion.

"It's Linda's birthday party. You even bought her a gift. How did you forget?" She stared.

"I buy those in advance so that I don't forget. What day is it anyway?"

"Friday! What's wrong with you? You've been working your ass off for the past couple of months and I heard the boss mentioning either a raise, promotion, or a nervous breakdown. If even he's noticing the state of you, you should be worried, Troy." Kay leaned against the doorframe, not taking her gaze off me.

"I just… I have a lot on my mind. I don't think I brought any change of clothes," I mumbled, looking around as if a nicer pair of pants and a shirt would just pop out of thin air.

"Don't worry about it. You can go as you are. She wants to go dancing, so we'll just crash a club and take most of it off you anyway." Kay grinned evilly and motioned for me to get up.

"I have to save the work first. Give me a second," I said as I started clicking and eventually rose from my chair.

"Is the dancing mandatory?" I asked as I joined her at the door.

"You better believe it. But don't worry, we'll get you drunk first. Isn't that right, girls?" She yelled the last part and the female majority of the employees happily confirmed it with a shout.