Chapter Five
Emmet
Dominic
Can you fucking answer me already?
With a sigh, I press the call button by his name.
“For fuck’s sake. I thought you were dead.”
“I’m alive,” I say. “What do you want?”
“To make sure you’re alive.”
“Well, I am. So I guess—“
“No. Nice try though.”
I groan in annoyance.
Dominic is one of my previous foster brothers, and one of my favorite people.
He’s one of the only guys I became really close with while they lived with my family, and stayed in touch with after.
Many kids came and went, all boys so my parents wouldn’t have to worry about issues between girls and boys, but something about Dominic caught my eye.
Not in the same way Adam did, of course, but in the brotherly sort of way.
We’ve stayed in touch after all these years and we tell everyone we’re brothers.
He’s the closest I’ve ever had to a real one.
“What do you want, Dominic?” I repeat, because even though I love him, I don’t want to talk.
“Are you okay?” he asks, this time in a softer voice.
“Things are great,” I say. “The bar is doing well. I’m keeping busy.”
He’s silent on the other end as I wait for him to give me some kind of pep talk. Dominic has so much big brother energy mixed with Golden Retriever. It’s exhausting, but he means well, so I let him get away with it.
“I don’t believe that for a second, but I know harassing you over it won’t get me anywhere either. So I’m just going to say that you better call me if you need me, and I’ll be on the first plane there.”
“Yeah, got it.”
“Also, I wanted to let you know that I have to call Adam.”
“What for?” I ask.
“Selling my house.”
“Why the hell would you do that?”
“It’s a long story, but I need to get out of here.”
“Oh, so you get to keep secrets but I can’t?”
He chuckles. “You have plenty of secrets, asshole.”
“How’s Mom?” he asks, and it sends a pang right to my heart.
“She’s… as good as can be, I guess.”
He’s privy to what’s really going on.
“Call me if you need anything, Emmet. I’m fucking serious.”
“Yeah, yeah. Bye.”
I end the call before he can give me more shit.
I do love him, but he is annoying. He knows way too much about me, and it’s difficult to hide from him.
I don’t like that. He is proudly and loudly himself, working as a gay dominant cam boy and doesn’t care who knows it.
He makes a shit ton of money doing it, and maybe if I were more of an extrovert, I’d give it a try.
Though, that isn’t the only thing holding me back, if I’m being honest. It feels too much like cheating, even if Adam and I aren’t together.
It’s a weird thing that I’ve been plagued with for years, something I don’t know how to get past. So I stopped trying.
I plug my phone into the charger since I forgot to last night and I’m at 16%. Then I get out of my seat and stretch, my back cracking in too many places.
The new furniture for the office came, and it sucks. The chair is too stiff and I had to put in an order for one of those back cushions. Though, maybe my problem is that I'm here, sitting in it too much.
Now that I’m off the phone and not worried about dodging Dominic’s questions, I think more on what he said about having to talk to Adam.
Dominic hasn’t been living in his house long.
He started dating someone a few months ago, some guy named Mikah that I met at the bar.
He seems nice enough, but I can’t imagine them moving in together already, though I guess they could be.
I can’t think of any other reason he’d want to sell his house, and of course, he won’t tell me a damn thing.
Has to know everyone’s secrets but keeps all of his own. Jerk.
A knock on the door has me looking up. Pete is there, though there isn’t anyone else I’d expect.
He’s the only one who works here, and apparently, he likes it that way.
I think at some point I’ll have to hire at least one more person, but for now, things are running smoothly.
And maybe I won’t have to hire anyone at all.
Maybe I’ll just do what I did at the last bar and work it myself.
Nothing wrong with that. It keeps me involved in the day-to-day, and it keeps me busy.
“There’s someone here to see you.”
“See me?” I say, frowning.
He smirks and nods.
I can’t imagine who would be here to see me, unless it’s just the guys being the guys.
They’re a silly bunch who have been coming here for years and I wouldn’t put it past one of them to have bought me a present or done something weird.
They already made me a T-shirt that says “Bar Daddy” on it, and they cracked up when I came into work wearing it today and threatened to make more so I would have one every day of the week.
I didn’t hate the idea, and considered turning it into our thing, but then I thought of Pete wearing one and laughed at the face he’d give me if I told him he had to. So, for now, I guess it’s just a me thing.
I prefer to hide in the shadows and do what needs to be done, but if bringing a little attention to myself with a T-shirt is what I need to do to get settled into this place, I’ll do it.
The regulars here are harmless and have been helpful.
I prepare to see something ridiculous when I walk out of the back room, like a naked painting of me or dick balloons.
But it isn’t the guys waiting for me. It’s Adam.
My heart does a flip, and I can’t help but smile.
He came here for me.
“Hey,” I say.
“Hey,” he says back, his smile rivaling my own.
“What are you doing here?” I ask. “Shouldn’t you be with the kids?”
He shrugs, scratching the back of his neck. “Their cousins came down for a surprise visit, so I said I’d get them tomorrow.”
I nod, but it has me uneasy. Adam isn’t one to let people walk all over him, yet, I feel that’s what’s happening here. Maybe I’m just being judgmental because I’m protective of him. Though he can stick up for himself, I’ve always been bigger and scarier and felt the need to protect him.
“So you came to hang out,” I say, though what I really wanted to say was you came to see me.
It’s wishful thinking. I’m just a familiar face in an unfamiliar area. I could say the same for him, but that would be watering it down.
Adam is everything. My everything. My sun, my stars, my moon. The gravity that has held me to this earth from the first day I saw him.
“Yes,” he says, his eyes dipping to my shirt. He raises a brow. “Bar Daddy, huh?”
I chuckle, feeling my cheeks heat. “Yeah, I think it’s part of my initiation.”
“No, it’s just because you’re our bar daddy, you hunk!” Nathanial calls out, the nosy bastard. They all break into laughter, and Adam laughs too, his eyes shining.
“What can I get you?” I ask.
He hops onto the stool. “I’m getting the royal treatment, huh?”
“Always,” I say, the word coming out huskier than I intended.
“Jack and Coke, please.”
I make him a drink and take his money when he pays, punching it into the tablet stationed on the counter that acts as our register. The first thing I did was invest in an upgraded payment system, and I have had zero complaints. Pete said it was “nifty” which I’ll take as a good thing.
“Am I keeping you from work?” Adam asks.
“Of course not,” I say, leaning on the counter. “So, how was California?”
He shrugs, idly mixing his drink with the small red straw.
“Same as always. It’s all business when I’m there.”
“You plan on doing this forever?”
“No,” he says with a firm shake of his head.
He brings the glass to his lips, sipping from it instead of the straw, and I can’t help but wonder if that was intentional.
If wrapping his lips around the straw would be too much of a reminder of when he wrapped them around my cock.
Or maybe he doesn’t think about those things anymore.
It was a long time ago, and it’s possible he forgot all about it—about us.
“My contract is up at the end of the year,” he adds.
“Then what?”
“Then… I figure out what to do next.”
“You don’t have a plan?”
“It’s complicated, Emmet.” He sighs.
“Okay,” I say, holding my hands up. “Just trying to make conversation.”
“No, I know. It’s okay. It’s just a sore subject.”
“Hey, it’s fine,” I say. “We can talk about something else.”
He nods, then a small smile forms on his lips. “How are your parents?”
My face drops, a knot forming in my stomach..
“No…” he begins, and says nothing further.
“That’s also complicated,” I manage to say.
He nods understandingly, and it goes quiet again.
Is there anything we can talk about that is safe?
Why is it like this suddenly? I used to be able to tell Adam everything, and he told me everything. At least, that’s what I thought. Is it because we’re here with all these people? Is it the years between us? The history? Will he ever trust me again?
It’s not that I don’t want to talk to him about my parents, the question just came out of nowhere, and here isn’t the place to do it.
“Oh, so I heard Dominic is going to be reaching out to you.”
Adam chuckles. “Going to be? He already did.”
“He did?”
“Yeah, two days ago.”
Fucking Dominic.
“He’s putting his house up for sale?” I question.
“Yeah, it should go quick. That’s a prime neighborhood.”
“He won’t tell me why he’s selling.”
“I didn’t ask,” Adam adds.
I watch him for a moment, as he sips his drink.
He’s so different yet so much the same. Just as I remember him only older, but the differences I see in him aren’t really his looks.
It’s the way he acts, the way he presents himself.
He seems tired, stressed out, like he could use a month-long vacation.
I want to ask him what’s going on, tell him that he can tell me everything.
I want to help him and make everything better… but would he let me?
“I’ve got a few things to finish up in the back. Hang around. I’ll be back out soon. Like… twenty minutes?”
“Yeah, sure,” Adam says with a nod.
I head to the back to finish what I was doing and pack up my computer, then I go to the front of the bar and take a seat beside him. I notice he has a fresh drink, so he plans on staying.
“This feels better,” he says with a chuckle.
Of course it does. Because we’re together.