Hope
held Decan until he’d dozed off, then she carefully slipped out of bed and went to the kitchen. There, she added some extra cheese to two frozen pizzas and slid them in the oven. She filled up Mr. Grumps’s food and returned to the bedroom with water and juice.
Decan was still passed out, and she felt… indifferent. He’d seemed to enjoy himself, seemingly loving the feeling, but she was worried that she’d pushed him too far. She climbed back into bed, running her fingers through his still damp curls until she heard the timer go off.
“Stay here, baby. I’ll be right back.”
Not that Decan was going anywhere. He let out a soft grunt and when she returned with the pizzas in hand, he had his half open eyes on her. She sat his food on the nightstand and offered him the water, which he gratefully accepted with an appreciative grunt. He gulped half of it down, then wordlessly pointed at his sweatpants. Once he’d dressed himself, he took his pizza in his lap.
sat next to him, unsure how she should express her concern. “I think I broke you, and I’m sorry.”
He crooked his brow at her and grinned. “You made me come so hard I passed out. Not sure what you’re apologising for. ”
“I’m afraid I took it too far.”
Decan sighed and reached out to cup her cheek. “You didn’t. It was amazing. You were amazing.” Then he chuckled. “I never thought I would say this, but I’d like you to do that again.”
She closed her eyes and leaned into his touch. “Thank you for trusting me.”
“I’m glad I did.”
Once they’d eaten, Decan curled up under the blanket while cleared the dishes away. With Mr. Grumps in her arms she returned and was pulled to Decan’s chest, falling asleep the moment she slid under the cover.
The next morning, she woke up still in Decan’s arms but with something soft and fuzzy nudging her face. She opened her eyes to be greeted by Mr. Grumps’s unamused glare.
“He wants his breakfast.” Decan laughed and scratched his new friend’s ear. “He says we slept too late.”
“So demanding.” She stretched and kissed Decan’s cheek. “Let’s go serve the king his breakfast.”
But Decan wasn’t ready to let her go, pulling her into a deep, passionate kiss instead. She melted into him, but before she could fully appreciate him, a ball of fur pushed between them, and she had to giggle.
“I regret giving you a home,” Decan grumbled, but he smiled when he ran his hand over Mr. Grumps’s back .
picked up the little homewrecker and carried him to the kitchen, filling his food bowl and starting the coffee. When Decan entered the kitchen, she handed him his drink and perused the fridge for something to eat. “What would you like to do today?”
Decan sighed and when glanced over her shoulder, Decan was twisting his mug from left to right in his palms. “I wanted to go see Marco.”
The fridge closed then, giving him her undivided attention. “At the car meetup?”
“Yeah, but only if you’re willing to come with me.”
“Of course I’ll come with you. What changed your mind?”
“I don’t know. I just want to go and if I feel shitty about it, I would prefer to have you there.”
“I’m perfectly happy to be your knight in shining armour. I just have one condition.”
Soft, hazel, puppy eyes peered up at her. “You do?”
“You have to keep me from embarrassing myself with my lack of car knowledge.”
That conjured a smile on his face. “I’ll make sure of it.”
She closed the distance between them, guiding him in for a kiss by a finger under his chin. Though Decan didn’t need much convincing. He followed her, the kiss soft and full of appreciation. This was a huge step for him, and she was over the moon to be chosen to be by his side.
After breakfast they got ready, his eyes nearly popping out when she stepped out of the bathroom. She spun around for him, her cheeks hurting from the grin on her lips.
“Do you like it? ”
“You look stunning. But I thought you said you didn’t like dresses.”
“It’s not a dress.” She stuck her hands in the pockets, pulling the fabric taut and revealing that it actually was a jumpsuit. “It’s a one piece.”
“You look like a snack.”
walked over to where he sat. “And I love when you show off your tattoos with those sexy V-neck shirts.” She leaned down and kissed him, her fingers snatching his hair tie out, letting his curls fall over his shoulders. “Much better. Let’s hope I can fight off all the ladies once they lay eyes on my man.”
“ Your man?”
“Who else’s would you be?”
Decan groaned, squirming. “Fuck, I’m hard again.”
And now she was blushing. “Sorry.”
He rolled his eyes and pulled her into his lap, his fingers trailing over her bare legs. “Don’t be.”
When they pulled up to the meetup, Decan was visibly tense. The moment he was settled in his wheelchair, was massaging the back of his neck. She let him take the lead as they made their way to the parking lot filled with luxurious cars—ones was afraid to even get too close to.
“Is Marco showing off his car?”
“Yeah, they have an open section. ”
“Does he know you’re here?”
Decan shook his head. “I didn’t want him to be disappointed if I chickened out.”
She leaned down and pressed a kiss to his hair. “You’re doing great.”
Decan took a deep breath, seeming to inhale her words before showing her the way to some less expensive—but no less supped up—cars. When she saw Marco, she waved and his jaw dropped. He stared as they came closer, almost as if he’d seen a ghost.
“Hi, there,” she greeted, amused at his dumbfounded expression.
“H-hi,” he stuttered, his eyes flickering between them.
“I think we short-circuited him,” she laughed, gesturing to the car next to him. “Is this yours?”
“Y-yeah.”
The car was an old Mustang that Marco seemed to have poured his whole heart and soul into—along with his life savings. “So, this is your fancy car and the other is just for your day to day life?”
“What the fuck, man?” Marco blurted. “ Years of me begging you to come back and five minutes after she waltzes in—”
“Stop right there or we’re leaving,” interrupted. “I didn’t ask him to come, he wanted to. If you start giving him shit, we can turn around and never look back.”
Marco stared at her for a moment, then took a breath and ran his hand over his face. “Okay.”
“Thank you,” she chirped and walked around his car to look inside. “So, you do it all yourself? ”
“Most of it, yeah.”
“It looks nice. I mean, not that I have a clue.” Out of the corner of her eye, Decan tensed again. followed his gaze to someone rushing up to them.
“Trust Fund Baby!” The man shouted. He was covered in tattoos, from his shaved head all the way down to his arms. “Fuck, it’s been years.”
“Yeah,” Decan mumbled, taking the hand the guy offered.
stepped up next to Decan and shook the guy’s hand as well, the other resting on Decan’s neck.
“Subtle,” the man jabbed. “I’m Tay.”
“.”
“A beautiful woman you have there. You still live around here?”
“Galleria Area, actually.”
“Fucking snob,” Tay laughed.
“And you’re still a dick,” Decan countered with the ghost of a smile across his lips.
“Can’t change now. People are used to it.”
The two fell into car talk, and that’s when checked out of the conversation. Her eyes trailed to Marco who was eying her carefully. Kissing Decan’s hair, she gave his neck a squeeze and left the two men to their chat. “What’s on your mind?” she asked Marco.
“You didn’t put him up to this?”
“Cross my heart,” she said, fingers dancing over Marco’s car as she rounded to the trunk. “He said he didn’t want to tell you and disappoint you if he couldn’t show.”
“Why would he think I’d be disappointed? ”
“Because even as we got out of the car, he wanted to turn around and leave. He doesn’t want to let you down.”
“I’ve asked him so many times before.” Marco sounded troubled, upset even.
“You’re upset that he came here with me.”
“A little.”
“You’re a terrible liar. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you feel bad.”
“Now I like you even more, because you’re not even judging me.”
“Fine. Fuck off you jealous prick. Decan is my man now.” tried and failed to keep a straight face.
Marco playfully knocked her arm. “Why are you so damn nice?”
“Nice? I just called you a prick!”
“Yeah, with a huge grin on your face.”
“Thank you for saving him.” Marco only cocked his brow at her, so continued, “He said you pulled him out of the car and stayed by his side during recovery when no one else did.”
“That’s what brothers do.”
“I’m sure it couldn’t have been easy. So, thank you.”
“I suppose I should thank you too.”
“For what? Stealing your best friend away?”
“For walking up to him that day in the coffee shop. And calling him.”
“Well, he’s a cutie pie. How could I have passed up that opportunity.”
“You and I both know that other people would’ve seen the wheelchair and looked the other way. ”
“I like the premium parking.” Then she sobered. “I just hope that I can make him see how amazing he is.”
“You’ve made a good start.”
The two of them had slowly circled the car as they talked. When returned to Decan, he shook Tay’s hand again before the man walked off. “Do you mind if we look at the other cars?”
“Not at all.”
“You two love birds should circle back around after you’re done so we can have lunch together.”
“We’d love to,” she agreed.
When the show started to dissolve, they met back up with Marco and after confirming that Laura was meeting them for lunch, they agreed on the Galleria Mall.
kept a hand on Decan’s thigh as he drove, her thumb brushing the denim. “Why did Tay call you a trust fund baby?”
“Because I am.” He grinned over at her. “That’s how I bought my apartment. My family is well off and my parents’ only condition for me gaining access to my trust fund was to graduate college.”
“Oh. So I really didn’t have to feel bad for that dinner date, huh?”
“Not one little bit.”
Laura was already waiting for them in the parking lot, pulling into a hug before doing the same to Decan. “You’re missing someone.”
“Probably having trouble fighting off all the ladies because he’s driving his sexy car today.”
“I heard that, dumbass,” Marco muttered, approaching from b ehind them. He held out his hand to Laura. “Hi, you must be ’s other half.”
“Basically.”
They parted ways to grab their different cravings at the food court, then met up at one of the tables in the middle. Though Laura seemed distracted, so followed her gaze—right to her ex-girlfriend. Then Lisa started walking their way. Before she could reach the table stood and stopped her in her tracks. “You should leave.”
“I was just going to say hi.”
“She doesn’t want to talk to you.”
“Maybe you should let her make that decision,” Lisa snarled, trying to duck around her.
Without taking her eyes off Lisa, asked, “Laura, would you like to speak to Lisa?”
“No, thank you.”
“She’s made her decision. Now leave before I cause a scene.”
“You don’t need to be such a bitch about it.”
“I’d consider it if you hadn’t cheated on my best friend. Go. Now.”
“I didn’t cheat!” Lisa defended.
“Oh, really? Should I show our friends the screenshots and let them decide?” Defeated, Lisa left, and returned to her seat, where Decan watched her with wide eyes. “Sorry.”
“Why are you apologising? That was hot.”
“That’s the sign of someone getting lucky tonight,” Marco chided, giving Decan a playful punch. “Well played.”
Decan rolled his eyes, but the grin he flashed her was full of opt imism.
“So, Laura, have you two been friends a while?” Marco asked.
“Since high school. And you two?”
Marco turned to Decan with a conniving grin. “It was junior year that you beat the shit out of me, right?”
“Yeah,” Decan returned, a fond smile curling his lips.
crooked a brow at her man. “And that made you two best friends?”
“How else? What made you two decide to be best friends?” Decan countered with a laugh.
“ was the only girl who didn’t mind hanging out with me after I came out. All the others thought I would turn them gay.”
“And was always a firm believer in dick, despite that?” Marco teased.
Laura laughed. “Yes, she has.”
“No friend zone situation going on here?” Marco cheekily pressed.
“Nope, not at all.”
“Shame,” Marco frowned playfully.
The four of them got along really well. could easily see an alliance forming between Laura and Marco.
“Let’s go to the waterfall,” Laura suggested after spending hours strolling through the mall. “I’ve wanted some new pictures of us for ages and now we have someone to take them.”
“Damn, I see how it is—only using us for our photography skills.” Marco playfully frowned, but he willingly followed Laura as she dragged all of them along .
Once at the waterfall, Laura handed her phone to Decan and pulled with her to pose. Once they had some options, Laura went to check them and seemed ecstatic with Decan’s photography skills.
Then with a bright grin she ushered Decan to replace her. “You two better get some cute pictures in.”
When Decan hesitated, of course Marco jumped in. “C’mon. You two look cute together.”
Decan didn’t seem very comfortable when he closed the distance between them, so she leaned down to him, twirling his hair around her finger and kissing his cheek. “I’m sorry she’s being so pushy.”
Instead of an answer, Decan pulled her in for a more passionate kiss. “It’s not that I don’t want a picture with you, it’s just—”
“I know, you don’t have to justify how you feel towards me. I get it.”
“Perfect!” Laura cheered, already moving towards the waterfall where they took even more pictures—this time just the two of them. The only exception was made for a picture with all four of them.
By the time they got back to Decan’s place, was exhausted. She let Decan feed Mr. Grumps, who’d been a good boy by solving his treat puzzle again and collapsed on the couch.
“Are you staying another night?” he asked.
“I’d love to.” While Decan busied himself in the kitchen with dinner, held Mr. Grumps in her lap and spoiled him with attention. “How are you feeling?”
He took a moment before answering. “Good, but also… strange. It was hard being back and knowing I’m not the same guy from all those years ago.”
“Do you regret going?”
“Yes and no. I feel like it was necessary, but now I’m upset to have that reality check cashed in.”
“I think you did really well.”
“Thank you.” Before she could get up, Decan brought her dinner to her. “We could watch a movie and cuddle. You look exhausted too.”
smiled. “Sounds like my kinda night.”