Or maybe he wasn’t happy at all.
Neither option sat well.
They left the pizza place and walked towards the Tube station. Rhys seemed on edge. Twitchy. Jevon grabbed his hand and tugged him into the nearest shop—a gentrified cupcake parlour. “You look like you need some sugar,” he responded to Rhys’s quizzical frown.
“I just ate my bodyweight in pizza and hipster salad.”
“Humour me. You like chocolate, right?”
Rhys’s expression evened out. “I do. Not white chocolate though. That shit tastes like soap.”
“Noted.” Jevon surveyed the options and picked out two cakes he hoped would put a smile back on Rhys’s face. Then he took Rhys’s hand again and held it tight, daring him to let go as they left the shop and continued to the underground.
Rhys didn’t let go. They got on the Victoria line towards his Brick Lane flat and found a corner on the crowded train. Jevon half sat on a cushioned ledge and held Rhys against him, ghosting a subtle hand under his jacket, then under his clothes so his palm slid over Rhys’s warm skin. Somehow touching him had become the easiest thing in the world. Would it feel that way when they got back to Rhys’s flat? When their clothes came off and they were naked again?I hope so.But for once, screwing around was the last thing on Jevon’s mind.
He dug his fingers into Rhys’s muscled back, kneading the tension he found there. “Are you okay?”
The words were whispered, barely audible, but Rhys jerked like Jevon had shouted in his ear. “What?”
Jevon raised an eyebrow, waiting for the question to compute.
Rhys shrugged and scrubbed a hand down his face. “Shit. Sorry. I’m just knackered. I swear you’re like a tranquiliser to me.”
“That boring, eh?”
“The opposite. I meant that you chill me out.”
“That’s sweet, but you don’t seem particularly chilled.”
Rhys shook his head. “Sorry.”
He didn’t elaborate. Merely pulled Jevon off the train at Victoria and guided him onto the District line. The second train was even more crowded than the first, and an elderly lady got between them, her shopping bags piled at their feet. By the time they’d helped her off the train at Aldgate and carried her bags above ground, the moment had passed.
Rhys’s flat was just as Jevon remembered it. Which was lucky, because he’d been so drunk that night, he’d barely recalled his own name the next morning. The bed was already unfolded though.Wasn’t it a couch last time?
Rhys chucked his jacket and shoes in the hallway cupboard and returned to where Jevon was hovering in the living room doorway. “What’s up?”
“Nothing. Just trying to remember the last time I was here.”
“Ah.” Rhys ducked under Jevon’s arm. “Good luck with that. I was pretty sure I’d dreamt you until I found your sock under a pillow.”
“My sock?”
Rhys rummaged in a fortuitously nearby basket of clean clothes. “Yeah. I don’t think I could pull these off at work.”
He tossed the sock to Jevon. It was black, covered in psychedelic unicorns, and belonged to his favourite pair. How had he not noticed it was missing?Because you’ve had nothing but Rhys on your mind since he put his dick in your mouth.
The devil on Jevon’s shoulder was so on the money that he couldn’t speak. Just took his sock and stuffed it in his pocket, willing away the random flashes of the ecstasy-laced panic attacks he’d floated through on Rhys’s sofa bed.
Rhys sat down heavily. Jevon dropped the paper bag from the cake shop on the coffee table and joined him. “What’s the matter?”
“Nothing’s the matter.”
“Liar. You’re freaking out about something, and if it’s me, I can easily go. St. Pancreas to Bedford and I’ll be home soon enough.”
“No! God, no.” Rhys’s hand shot out and he grabbed Jevon’s arm. “Don’t go. It’s not that, I swear.”
“Then what is it?”