Page 21 of Can't Stop Now

“Yup. Probably was a waste of time, but at least it was cool to see that pub,” Will said.

There was another pause, and Jacob glanced over at Will again.

“So… you didn’t hook up with that Mark guy?”

“What? Hook up with?Godno. Although it certainly seemed like he wanted to,” Will said, disgusted.

“What do you mean?” Jacob asked, his voice low.

“Well he basically was all over me at the end of the night, but he was gross. I left right after.”

“Oh, ok. Yeah, I definitely thought you went and hung out with him because you were… y’know, into him,” Jacob said, hesitantly.

“Into him? Ugh,noooo,no, no. I mean, youmethim, right? He was the most pretentious ‘I’m-an-arteest’type imaginable! I don’t care how good your art is, no one can get away with acting like that. I wanted to go hang out with him because he said he had gallery representation, and I really need to figure out how to do that. Get my art shown in galleries, and stuff. I’m finally attempting to network, or whatever,” Will said.

“Well, that’s definitely a good thing. And… yeah, I didn’t like him either,” Jacob finally admitted.

Will laughed. “Yeah, who would?”

A tiny smile appeared on Jacob’s face, the first one of the day.

“I just figured… you, coming back at 2am, stumbling over my suitcase… I thought you had come back from a hook-up. I’m sorry,” Jacob said, sounding bashful.

“Not in the slightest. I’m not looking for hook-ups, anyway. I’m not really that kind of guy, despite what Maya thinks,” Will said, shaking his head. “And hey! How’d you know I stumbled over your suitcase?”

“I… might have been pretending to be asleep,” Jacob said, smiling.

“You asshole,” Will said, smiling and giving him a playful slap on the shoulder. “You didn’t have to do that.”

Will was surprised that this was all it took to get Jacob in a good mood.Was that really all that had been bothering him?he thought, curious.Why would he care if I had a hook-up anyway?

He looked over at Jacob. He looked like he’d had a weight lifted from him. Will smiled to himself, looking out the window.Jacob, Jacob, Jacob. I am still figuring you out, he thought. But inside, he felt a tiny flutter. He didn’t fully trust his own feelings when it came to Jacob, but it seemed like he hadn’t wanted Will to be with another guy. And even if Will thought he was probably just imagining that, he was happy to think that maybe it could be true.

Thirteen

Jacob

Well, now its pretty much guaranteed that Will thinks I’m an idiot, Jacob thought. They were halfway to Chicago, and stopping at a small diner along the way. Jacob had just essentially admitted to Will that he assumed he had been off hooking up with another guy the previous night.What kind of friend gets protective or possessive of another guy’s hookups? he wondered, afraid of what the answer might be.

They walked into the diner. It was quaint and small, but cute. They were sat by the hostess and browsed the menu. A few minutes later the waitress came.

“What can I get for you two?” she said. Jacob thought he could definitely hear a Midwestern accent coming through in her voice.

“Club sandwich for me,” Will said, smiling and handing her the menu.

“I’ll take the chicken tenders,” Jacob said.

After the waitress walked away, Will laughed at Jacob.

“Chicken tenders, that is adorable. Used to be my go-to order as a kid,” he said, smiling teasingly.

Jacob shrugged. “What can I say, I’m a man of simple tastes. I like what I like.” He smiled.

Their food came in under five minutes, and they both started to devour it. Jacob felt a lot better after getting some real food inside him, but still was feeling a nagging regret over how pissy he had been earlier that morning.

“Will, I just gotta apologize for how I was earlier. I shouldn’t have assumed you were out hooking up with that dude… and even if you were, it’s none of my business.” Jacob said, hoping Will would accept his apology. “I was honestly just kind of surprised you’d hang out with someone who seemed so… pretentious.”

“Don’t worry about it, Jacob,” Will said, looking down at the table in front of them. “Like I said, Mark mentioned that he had gallery representation, and for an artist, that’s hard to come by. It would be so amazing if I could figure out how to get my paintings or drawings into a gallery. Selling my work would be a dream come true,” Will said, toying with his empty straw wrapper on the table.