Finally (Friends #2)

Chapter 1

Squinting across the dark restaurant, Gray McClellan tried to locate his friends.

“Can I help you?” the hostess asked.

“I'm meeting some people. The reservation is probably under Kevin Rodley.”

“Kevin Rodley,” she said to herself as she picked up her iPad. “Let’s see...”

“Never mind.” He nudged his chin in the direction of a table. “I see them. Thanks.”

He walked over to the four-top where three of his friends were already seated and tugged the empty chair away from the table.

“Hey,” he said as he sat down.

“You’re late.”

“Am I?” He looked at his watch. “Huh, looks like you’re right.”

“That’s it?” his friend Kevin asked incredulously.

“What?” He darted his gaze around the table, looking for a menu.

“We said we’d be meeting at seven. It’s nine.”

Shrugging, Gray said, “I had to shower.”

“Cleaning yourself doesn’t take two hours and it isn’t an unexpected event, Grayson McClellan, schedule it.”

“He used your full name,” Eric mock whispered. “You’re in troubllllle.”

“Funny.” He noticed a few plates on the table. “Did you guys already order?”

“You’re two hours late! Yes, we ordered. And we ate. And we paid the bill,” Kevin huffed and crossed his arms over his chest. “I don’t know why you bothered to show up.”

“Because I told you I would.” He’d skip the meal and get a drink. He’d had a big lunch anyway.

“How very reliable of you.”

“Thank you.”

“I was being sarcastic! You’re an IP lawyer. What exactly happened at your desk job that required a two-hour shower?”

“Two-hour shower?” Gray asked as he looked around the restaurant for a waiter.

“At the risk of being repetitive, you’re two hours late.”

“The shower took about ten minutes. The fucking leading up to the shower was how I spent the lion’s share of the time.”

“You’re dating someone?” Eric said, looking hopeful. “Why didn’t you bring him?”

“God no.” Gray shuddered. “Some guy chatted me up on Grindr and his profile pic was too good to pass up.”

“What was his pic?” Eric asked.

“Big ass in a small jock.”

Laughing, Kevin said, “Still a slut.”

“Mmm.” Gray pinched his lips, scrunched his nose, and tilted his head, considering.

“I wouldn’t say slut exactly.” In theory, he was very much a relationship guy.

But his friends didn’t believe that because the entire time they’d known him, the only person he wanted hadn’t been available.

Gray was patient enough to wait, but he got lonely and horny, so he made do with what was available in the meantime.

“You spent most of the evening in bed with a random you met on an app.”

“An hour and a half isn’t most of the evening and we were in the living room,” Gray said distractedly. He really wanted that beer and there wasn’t a member of the waitstaff in sight. “Besides, I’m here now, aren’t I?”

“Gray has a dash of commitment phobia,” Thom said, trying to defend him, which was kind but unnecessary because the day Gray came out to his father and received a detailed lecture about how that made him disgusting was the same day he vowed never to care what anyone thought of his sex life.

“Also,” Thom added, “I’m never sitting on your sofa again. ”

“A dash?” Kevin said. “Gray bought the Costco-sized commitment-phobia bottle and chugged the entire thing in one sitting.”

“It was his sofa, not mine,” he said to Thom, “and don’t act like you and Eric limit your fun time to your bedroom.

” He considered whether he should navigate his way through the crowd to get to the bar.

It probably would be rude to leave the group when he’d only just arrived, but the conversation meant the drink was becoming necessary.

“And I’m not commitment phobic,” he mumbled.

If anything, he was the most committed guy at the table, even if nobody else understood that.

“Look, if you won’t take a guy out in public—and even if you will, which, let’s be real, you won’t—that means you have an issue with committing.”

“Fine, I enjoy sex but I’m all about commitment and do you have an actual point, Kevin?

Because if you do, please make it and then we can move on from this topic.

” This was why he had agreed to the hookup despite having plans at the same time—sex was fun, but creating an excuse to reduce his time with his friends was even better.

“My point is that if you really are all about commitment, you’re shooting yourself in the foot with all the sleeping around, because if you ever meet a guy you actually deem worthy of a relationship, there’s no way he’ll settle down with someone who’s all used up.”

“Used up?” Gray asked. “I’m a human being, not chewing gum, and sex doesn’t work that way.

” Sometimes he wondered if he should find new friends, but then he remembered that this was a good group of nice people, and realistically, he didn’t like humans.

Well, he didn’t like most humans. There was an exception to every rule.

“I have never been more uncomfortable in my life.” Thom wasn’t one to complain so the conversation must have been getting to him.

“Kevin, Thom is uncomfortable. Why don’t we schedule this lecture about my life choices for later in the week?” Gray offered. “We can do it over lunch, my treat.”

“Oh, I don’t care about that,” Thom said, moving his hand in the air between Gray and Kevin as he shook his head. “Kevin nagging is par for the course. Before you got here, he was all over Eric about his credit card.”

Rolling his eyes, Eric said, “I’m supposed to get some card because of airline miles.”

“That’s not what I said.”

“Want me to get the credit card?” Gray offered Kevin. “Will that get you off my back about being late?”

“You already have a card that gives you travel perks.”

“Kev, seriously, think about why you know that and consider getting less involved in our business.”

“Watch it.” Kevin pointed at Gray and narrowed his eyes dangerously. “People pay me a lot of money for my financial advice and you guys get it for free.”

“Which we appreciate,” Eric said. “Right, Thom?”

“Yeah, that’s not going to work out.” Thom shook his head.

Gray scrunched his eyebrows in confusion.

“He wasn’t talking to me,” Eric explained. “Thom, want to concentrate on the people sitting with you instead of on Jack?”

Gray sat up straight, his heart suddenly racing. “What happened to Jack?”

“Nothing happened to Jack.” Eric sighed and threaded his fingers with Thom’s. “Stop staring at them.”

Noticing that Thom’s gaze was fixed on a spot over his shoulder, Gray quickly twisted his back and peered across the room.

“I said Thom should stop staring, not that you should join him!”

Sure enough, he caught sight of Jack’s blond hair at the bar. Moving on autopilot, Gray pushed his chair back.

“What are you doing?” Eric asked nervously.

“I’m getting a drink.”

“Do not go over there.”

“I'm thirsty.”

“Yes, we know,” Kevin said drolly. “Leave Jack alone. He’s not your type and you’re not his type.”

“You have no idea about our types.” And that comment proved it.

“He stayed in that relationship with Jaime for years when everyone knew it wasn’t working. I’ve known you just as long and you’ve never had a boyfriend. Jack is a commitment type of guy and you’re a one foot in the gutter and the other foot out the door type of guy.”

“I already told you, I’m not afraid of commitment with Jack.” Gray stood.

“Come on, Gray, I know you think it’s funny to constantly hit on Jack, but seriously, now is not the time,” Kevin said. “He’s on an actual date with a guy who actually dates.”

“Jack doesn’t date.” The most beautiful, intelligent, sweet person Gray had ever known occasionally went out, but until he stopped mourning the loss of his should have ended after a week but maddeningly dragged on for ten years relationship with his ex-boyfriend and still-business partner, Jack’s interactions with men were about as meaningful as the one Gray had had before coming to the restaurant.

“And he likes it when I come on to him.”

If Jack didn’t gift him with a shy smile even as his neck, ears, and cheeks reddened, then Gray would have stopped the touching and the innuendos long ago.

Hell, Jack’s reaction was the entire reason Gray kept it up.

That and Gray’s unrelenting hope that one day, when Jack was ready to meaningfully share his life with someone, he would recognize the chemistry between them.

Because while he shared Jack’s friend group, Gray’s feelings for the sensitive tech wizard were not of the only friends variety.

“See the man next to him?” Eric widened his eyes and arched his eyebrows meaningfully.

Gray peered across the room.

“That’s the guy Jack’s been seeing for a month. He made a New Year’s resolution to put himself out there and that’s what he’s doing right now with his date.”

“New Year’s Eve was three days ago. How has he had a resolution for a month? And why are you only telling me about it now?” More importantly, why hadn’t Jack told him he was seeing someone? They talked nearly every day.

“We didn’t tell you because he’s our friend and friends back each other’s play.”

“Back each other’s… Eric, you’re a forty-three-year-old organizational consultant, not a twenty-one-year-old frat boy. And Jack Storm does not play.”

“We knew you’d do this,” Kevin said tiredly.

“Do what?” Gray frowned.

“Try to get Jack into bed. Seriously, Gray, it took a decade for him to finally heal enough from Jaime’s breakup to put himself out there. Leave the poor guy alone. He doesn’t need to be another notch on your crumbling bedpost.”

He liked his friends, but they couldn’t be more wrong about his intentions, which wasn’t to say he didn’t want to take Jack to bed. He very much wanted to do that, but it wasn’t because he needed another conquest.

“Sorry I missed dinner,” he said as he walked away from the table. “I'm getting a drink at the bar.”