Jevon chewed on his lip. He was beginning to feel superfluous to requirements, but somehow stepping away seemed impossible.
He settled for excusing himself to the kitchen to make more tea.
Rhys followed him a few minutes later. “I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t be.” Jevon chucked an extra spoon of sugar in Angelo’s mug. “It’s not my business, man.”
“And yet here you are making tea in a stranger’s kitchen.”
“I’ve brewed up in worse places.”
“Me too.” Rhys knocked his head on Jevon’s shoulder. “Listen, I need to ask you a favour.”
Jevon put the kettle back on its stand and turned to face Rhys. “If you’re going to ask me to wait with Angelo until your brother’s fella gets here, it’s fine. I was going to offer.”
“For real?”
“Of course. You have to work and he needs someone here.”
“But you don’t know him.”
“Neither do you, by the sound of it. Even if you have fucked him.”
The words were out of Jevon’s mouth before he was consciously aware of them forming in his head, but as soon as they registered with Rhys, it was clear he’d hit a nerve.
“You’re right,” Rhys said. “Until a few months back, I’d been mucking around with Angelo and Dylan for a good while, but I don’t know Angelo. Just that he loves Dylan, and his health isn’t always great.”
“What about Dylan?”
Rhys shrugged. “Better. We talk on the phone, confide in each other, but I haven’t seen him in months.”
“Why not?”
“Does it matter? I thought you’d be pleased they weren’t still fucking me.”
One day Jevon would understand how simple conversations with Rhys could become the end of the world. “It’s not my business if they’re fucking you.”
“No?”
“No. It just worries me—for your sake—that you have a relationship with them you seem ashamed of.”
“That’swhat you’re annoyed about?”
“I’m not annoyed,” Jevon said, even as sharp scratches of temper buzzed through his veins. “And I’m not jealous that you had a life before you met me. I’m just sad it doesn’t seem to mean anything to you. That you won’tletit.”
Whatever was stoking the fire in Rhys’s dark gaze seemed to give up on him. He leaned heavily on the counter and shook his head. “I don’t understand what’s happening right now.”
The bewilderment in his face was so complete that Jevon abandoned his tea making and pulled him into a tight hug. “What a day, huh? And it ain’t even lunchtime.”
Rhys rumbled something against Jevon’s chest but didn’t pull back to make himself heard, so Jevon let him be, rubbed his back, and tried not to wonder what on earth would happen next. He’d fallen hard and fast for Rhys in ways he couldn’t describe, but despite seeming to function in the outside world, Rhys was a mess. Angelo was a mess. And Harry didn’t sound too happy either.
What do you care?
Jevon couldn’t answer that question, except to say that he did. He really fucking did.
Movement in the living room roused them. Rhys disentangled himself and hurried to help Angelo, who was trying to get up. “What are you doing?”
“Going to the bathroom.”