12
Mickey felt him before he saw him. But like everything that day, it didn’t seem real. The tingling on the back of his neck felt like a rash, and the flutter in his chest added a scratchy new layer to the anxiety he couldn’t escape.
He reached for his rum.
Jaiden pulled the glass away. “Come on, mate. Let me call you a cab?”
He patted Mickey’s shoulder. The touch made Mickey’s skin crawl. He shrugged it off and laughed without humour. “You’re not gonna try get me to fuck you this time?”
Jaiden scowled, scrunching up his pretty face. “Not when you’re drunk enough to actually agree, no. It’s only banter. I know you don’t want it.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because you’ve been face down in that glass for three hours. You didn’t come here to score.”
Score.Jaiden meant dick, but in the world Mickey was trying to forget, it meant something else. Something that would quiet the agitation crawling in his veins, if only for a moment. “If you want to help me, get me another drink.”
Jaiden shook his head. “Nope. I’m cutting you off while you’re still steady enough to make good decisions.”
“You’re a prick.”
“And you’re a nice bloke having a bad day. Don’t let it ruin our beautiful friendship.”
Mickey glared. “You don’t know I’m a nice bloke. And we aren’t fucking friends.”
“Either way, I’m not serving you anymore.” Jaiden snatched Mickey’s glass away.
Irritated, Mickey lurched from his stool. Jaiden’s pretty brown eyes widened in alarm, but warm hands steadied Mickey before he stumbled, guiding him into an embrace that felt like home. “Leave him. I got this.”
It took Mickey a moment to realise the growled words weren’t for him. And even longer for the voice that had uttered them to solidify.
Benito.
No. Mickey wasn’t that lucky. And in any case, he couldn’t recall a moment where Benito had everhuggedhim, and this shit felt so familiar there was no way he hadn’t experienced it a thousand times before.
That voice, though.
Mickey forced his head up, robbing his senses of the scent of clean cotton andman.
Benito stared back at him, his dark eyes wide and worried and his handsome face too perfect to be real. Mickey zeroed in on a tiny scar that bisected Benito’s eyebrow. It clearly wasn’t new, but it was to Mickey.How have I not noticed it before?Until this moment, he’d been sure he’d committed every inch of Benito’s face to an indelible memory.
“Hey.”Benito squeezed Mickey’s shoulders. “Are you okay?”
“What?”
Benito repeated the question, but Mickey didn’t know the answer. All he knew was his brain wouldn’t work fast enough to engage Benito before he slipped away.
He shook his head.
Benito stepped back to take a better look at him.
Mickey grabbed him. “Don’t go.”
“I’m not.” Benito shot a glance at the glass Jaiden was still clutching. “How many of those have you had?”
“Not enough.”
“Enough for what?”