Page 8 of Inevitable

“They’re in Nashville, though, aren’t they?” Drew asked.

Bas shook his head with a dazed look on his face. “Here’s the kicker. They want to rent my studio to record their album. It’s nuts. I get to play with The Illumination. In my own studio. And they’ll fucking pay me for it, on top of everything. How does that happen?”

Drew smiled and hugged Bas, but the only thing he could comprehend was the fact that Bas was going to stay in Boston and not disappear for the next two months to goddamn Nashville.

“That’s great. Congrats. We’ll just reschedule our thing,” he said. The lightness in his tone was pretty convincing if he did say so himself. Probably not convincing enough to fool Bas, but enough to let them both pretend that it was okay.

“You’re too good to me,” Bas said and turned his head toward Drew.

“Never.”

Bas’s breath on his skin made the back of his neck prickle with awareness. He closed his eyes, but the warm puffs of air disappeared almost as soon as they had appeared. Bas pulled back a bit and slid his fingertips over a spot on Drew’s neck, making shivers run over Drew’s back. Bas licked his lips and leaned closer. For a crazy second, Drew actually thought Bas was going to kiss him. His heartrate picked up, the thump of it echoing inside his ears.

“You have a hickey.” Bas smirked and tapped the tips of his fingers against Drew’s neck, right below the pulse point.

Drew’s hand flew to his neck. The thought of Ezra made his body feel like he’d been doused into hot water.

“Are you blushing? Who was he? Somebody from the wedding? Please tell me he wasn’t one of Sharon’s stuck-up Atlanta buddies. That’s a surefire way to get me to avoid every single event Sharon is bound to organize in the future. Just giving you a heads-up.”

Drew laughed. “You’re in luck. You can still attend all of Sharon’s soirees. I stayed far away from all the wedding guests, friends, and Sharon and Nick’s immediate family.”

Drew had never exactly hidden when he slept with somebody. Most times Bas didn’t really ask either. Mostly they both ignored that part of Drew’s life. Talking about Ezra shouldn’t have been a big deal, but Drew couldn’t seem to find the words to explain the previous night.

“Ezra,” he said slowly, and God help him if the name didn’t taste sweet. “He worked at the restaurant. Dishwasher. I accidentally saw him get fired, and we got to talking. One thing led to another and…” Drew stared at the ceiling. He didn’t even know how to explain Ezra, but he couldn’t stop himself from talking about him either.

“I don’t think I’ve ever met anybody like him.” He snorted and shook his head. “You would have laughed your ass off if you’d heard me fumble my way through asking him out for drinks.”

Bas lifted his head and looked at Drew curiously.

“What?” Drew asked.

“You sound different about him. This Ezra,” Bas said.

Drew frowned. “Different how?” he asked cautiously.

“Ezra,” Bas repeated again, like he was testing the name out. He looked down at Drew’s neck again. “You never say their names. I was beginning to think you don’t even ask for their names, to be honest.”

“You think I’m that much of an asshole?”

“No. I’m pretty sure it’s a well-established fact that you’re the best man I’ve ever known. But you still sound different about him. Are you going to see him again?”

Bas leaned his head back on Drew’s shoulder as they both kept staring at the ceiling.

“I don’t do repeats, you know that.”

One-night stands were better. They were less complicated for everybody. The semi-anonymity of those hookups made them easier to stomach for Drew. Sex with a stranger wasn’t something he wanted. It had been sort of fun once upon a time, but the idea of an endless stream of men, all blending into one another, was starting to feel pointless. He was so tired of temporary.

But he couldn’t seem to break free of the hold Bas had over him. It didn’t matter that they weren’t in a relationship. That what Bas and he had would never become anything more. The hope was there. It never really left, and Drew had never met anybody who’d made him feel like he wanted to try and create something meaningful with somebody other than Bas. He had tried years ago and failed over and over again.

So there he was. Alone. Just him, his one-night stands, and his impossible hope.

It was buried deep inside, not to be let out to see the light of day because acknowledging that hope would make it all too real that whatever Bas and he had was not going to last like that forever. Change was coming. He could feel it looming in the distance. Scary and unpredictable.

And then life would really get complicated.

“I don’t know anything about him, other than his name,” Drew said, breaking the silence and his own thoughts. “He was gone by the time I woke up in the morning.”

Bas was quiet for so long that Drew thought he’d fallen asleep again.