Page 57 of Inevitable
“Mmm,” Drew hummed thoughtfully. “If only there was a way for you to shut me up. With…” Drew squinted his eyes. “Gr-ace,” he finally said.
Bas rolled his eyes as he leaned forward and kissed Drew.
“Your thoughts are still extremely loud,” Drew mumbled against Bas’s lips.
“It would be easier if you didn’t read me like a book,” Bas grumbled.
“I’m sure it would.” Drew aimed his calm, reassuring gaze straight at Bas. “Give us a chance. Don’t write us off before we can even start.”
“I don’t want to disappoint you. Either of you. And I don’t think you fully get it. Ours is never going to be a normal relationship.”
“Then we’ll make our own normal,” Drew said as if it was just that simple. “Does it have to be the same as everybody else’s? By all accounts, my parents are completely normal. Do you want to be like them? Or Sharon and Nick? They’re one hundred percent normal. At least on the outside.”
Bas shook his head. “I don’t think it’s fair to any of us to compare the incomparable.”
“Well, if we can’t compare, then how can you say we can’t be normal? Our kind of normal.”
Bas opened and closed his mouth a few times before he gave up trying to make counterarguments.
“You’re a smart man,” he said.
“Which is why you should stop arguing with me. Let’s face it, it’ll lead you nowhere.” Drew’s smile was everything Bas had always needed.
“Fine,” Bas said with a dramatic eye roll. “I guess we can be in a relationship.” He suddenly perked up. “I’ll find an obnoxiously sweet pet name for you to underline the fact. Sugarplum.”
“We’ll work on our terms of endearment,” Drew said.
“Sure. Booboo bear?”
“Are you high?”
“High on you, my love bug.”
“I’m not sure about this anymore. Maybe we should break up.” The dimples in his cheeks contradicted every word that came out of Drew’s mouth.
“No chance, sweet cheeks.”
“No.”
“Hot cakes?”
Drew shook his head with a laugh as he pulled Bas to him and shut him up with a kiss.
And when Ezra stumbled out of the bedroom an hour later, looking all sleepy and rumpled and overall adorable as he gave them both a shy smile and a sleep-warm morning kiss, the prospect of this being a part of Bas’s new normal chased away the last of the worry.
18
Ezra loosened his tie and let out a breath he felt like he’d been holding for the last two hours as he stepped out of the doors of the massive glass-and-steel building that housed the engineering department of UBionics.
He threw one last glance over his shoulder, tempted to do something like cross his fingers for good luck or something, but Ezra forced himself to move on. He’d either get the internship or not, but in the end, it would all come down to his abilities and not about if he managed to find a four-leaf clover or how expertly he knocked on wood while wishing for good things to happen. He had never been superstitious, and he was not going to start now, so he hiked his laptop bag over his shoulder and headed toward the station.
He grabbed his phone to check his messages and smiled when he saw the barrage of kissy-face emoji interspersed with four-leaf clovers Drew had sent him. He was just starting to type his reply when he heard his name.
He turned around to find Bas jogging toward him.
Bas stopped in front of Ezra and raised his brow.
“What? Now that you’re a corporate stooge, you’re too good to be seen with me?” he teased.