Chapter Twenty-Eight
Theo
“Wait, your brother was here and you didn’t let us meet him?” Alex asked, holding his glass in mid-air as he stared at me in shock. Then he grinned. “I’m not sure if we should be flattered or offended.”
“Probably a bit of both,” Lane said as he sipped his beer. “I mean, you’ve met us, right? We’re not exactly calming.”
“Calming?” Alex raised an eyebrow and Lane rolled his eyes and elbowed him.
“You know what I mean. Whatever the fucking opposite of intimidating is.”
“There are a lot of us these days,” Noah said as he looked around at the small crowd gathered around three tables in the corner of The Sleeping Goose.
We’d been forced to move inside several weeks ago because none of us except Laurie fancied sitting outside in the rain, and now we’d be in here until spring.
“And we’re quite… in your face at times. ”
“Yeah, but like, we don’t mean it in a bad way,” Spencer said, adjusting his beanie and fiddling with some of the hair that’d fallen out of his bun.
It was getting pretty long now and kinda looked Viking-esque.
It suited him and I’d noticed Noah giving him looks all night.
Spencer was definitely getting lucky later.
“It’s not like we want to overwhelm people; we just want to make sure new people are cool.
We don’t want anyone getting hurt because someone’s a dickhead. ”
“That,” Lane said with a stout nod. “That’s it.”
“Are you saying you don’t trust any of us to make good decisions about people?” Alex asked dryly and Lane smirked.
“Definitely not. You fucking refused to talk to your boyfriend at first and”—Lane turned to Will—“Will didn’t want to talk to Jamie either. So I’d say both of you are pretty shit about judging when people are good for you or not.”
“Hang on a second,” Alex said irately. “If we’re going to do that, then I have a lot of things to say about you and your ability to spend nine fucking years pining over a man without once sending him a fucking message to tell him that.”
Oliver chuckled from beside Lane. “He’s right.”
“Don’t start,” Lane said, attempting to glare at his boyfriend and then giving up as soon as Oliver smiled at him. They really were super cute together. I adored seeing all my friends happy and in love, and getting to be one of them made me even happier.
“You know,” Will said, “if we’re going to talk about pining, maybe we should talk about our newest lovebirds.”
“We weren’t pining,” I said as my face heated. “We were definitely just very, very close friends.”
Will raised an eyebrow, and the expression on his face said he didn’t believe me one bit. “Are you sure?” asked Jamie, looking utterly astonished as he leant forward to peer around Will. “Because I was pretty sure you were together when we first met.”
“I think we all thought that,” Will said into his beer.
“Seriously?” I asked, trying to pretend I hadn’t known for weeks.
“You all thought that?” I huffed and threw my hands into the air dramatically, hoping it would make them feel a tiny bit bad for never saying anything.
“You’re all as bad as Austin! Can’t two people just be best friends and not have romantic feelings for each other? ”
“Sure,” Will said with a knowing smile. “Look at me and Lane, or Alex and Lane, or Alex and Noah. We’re all friends and we’ve never wanted to fuck each other.
” He turned to them all, still smiling. “I mean, you’re all pretty sexy bastards, but I don’t think any of us would’ve been good for each other. ”
“Agreed,” Lane said. “I’d do any of you, but I’m not living with anyone except Oliver.”
Oliver laughed. “And I’m keeping you because nobody else would’ve made me a library from scratch.”
Lane grinned and leant over to kiss his boyfriend, and I couldn’t stop myself from making a little “aww” sound.
I was still cross with all of them, though.
“I still can’t believe none of you said anything!
” I looked at Laurie, who was sipping his red wine and seemed to be deciding whether to tell everyone he’d blown their secret weeks ago.
If he did, I was so going to make him pay for it later.
If he thought he’d seen me at my bratty best, then he was in for a shock.
It would be so much fun.
I wondered if he’d spank me in his gloves again.
The only problem would be if he decided to test out the new cock cage we’d ordered. If I was going to be a brat, I wanted to get an orgasm out of it.
“Did you know about this?” I asked, deciding to make him admit his part in the plot so I had concrete proof to use as my basis for bratting.
“Yes,” Laurie said, smirking at me. He clearly knew what I was trying to get him to do and wasn’t taking the bait.
Oh, he was a clever bastard sometimes. “Spencer mentioned it to me some time ago, not long after West first emailed you. But you can’t blame Spencer.
Neither of us made it clear and you can’t be upset at everyone being too polite to ask, especially considering how you reacted when Austin mentioned it. ”
I groaned at the mention of Austin. He’d been fucking insufferable since I’d told him we were together, like he thought he could take all the credit for it.
He was going to be so smug all next weekend and I hated it.
Maybe I could get him to focus on Jake and Kai instead, since they’d both be there too and were clearly still dancing around each other.
Either that or I’d distract him by asking how the wedding planning was going.
“I still think someone could’ve told me,” I said with a pout.
“Why? So you could’ve kept denying it? Or so you could’ve gotten to the getting your act together part sooner?” Alex asked. His grin bordered on smug and I stuck my tongue out at him.
“You’re being very rude.”
“No, I’m just telling you the truth.”
“Maybe I’ll tell Henry you love that parrot wallpaper,” I said. “Then you won’t be so mean.”
“You wouldn’t dare!”
“Watch me!”
“Theo,” Laurie said, his voice low and dangerously soft. “Behave.”
“I’m not doing anything,” I said, because I wasn’t. Not really. Alex and I always teased each other and neither of us meant anything by it. But internally I laughed in delight because I’d found a way to get the rise I’d wanted out of him.
“Yes, you are.” The look Laurie gave me was unyielding, even to my best and prettiest pout.
He leant closer and lowered his voice until it was barely above a whisper.
“I will punish you if you continue being rude, and I can promise you it will not be a light spanking and you getting to come. Do you understand?”
“Yes,” I said, deepening my pout like I wasn’t on the verge of getting everything I wanted.
“Good, then apologise to Alex,” Laurie said as he sat back in his seat and took a long sip of his wine, watching me closely.
“Sorry, Alex,” I said. “I wouldn’t really tell Henry you loved the wallpaper.”
Alex stared at me in shock, his mouth hanging open. He looked at me, then at Laurie, then back to me again. “You’re fine,” he said. “I know you wouldn’t.”
“Did I hear my name?” Henry asked, appearing with a tray of drinks like he’d been magically summoned. “Were you talking about me?”
“No,” Alex said with a teasing smile as Henry handed him a glass. “That’s just your ego.”
“No, my ego tells me how fabulous I am.” He winked at Alex as he handed out the rest of the drinks.
Soren, one of the pub’s proprietors, appeared behind him with a second tray and they did a little swap so Henry could keep passing out glasses.
I didn’t know how much longer we’d be able to keep up our tradition of everyone paying for a round every few weeks, since there were now so many of us and I didn’t want to force anyone into a financial predicament.
I’d have to talk to Laurie about the best way to bring it up because he’d know a subtle way to do it without making anyone feel embarrassed.
Once he’d finished handing out the drinks, Henry slid onto the bench next to Alex and put his arm around his shoulder, kissing his temple.
Alex softened and leant into his touch, and I realised they couldn’t have much time left together before Henry had to disappear off to LA for filming.
That had to suck balls because I doubted Henry would be able to come back every weekend.
At least when I filmed, it was only a couple of nights instead of a couple of months.
“Did I miss anything?” Henry asked as he picked up his gin and tonic.
“Only me finding out that they all thought Laurie and I were together for years and none of them said anything because they were too polite,” I said. Henry chuckled.
“If it helps,” he said, “I thought you were together too.”
“It doesn’t, but I can’t be upset with you because you haven’t been here long,” I said matter-of-factly.
“I’m not sure that makes any sense,” Alex said. “But whatever.”
I wanted to argue further but then remembered he was probably struggling with Henry leaving, so instead I said, “You should come to our house one night soon. I can make dinner and we can watch Zombie Crocodile Two.”
Alex snorted. “Seriously? They made a second one?”
“Yeah,” I said. “It looks awful. But like, in a ‘so terrible you have to love it’ kinda way. And we definitely need to do a rewatch of all the Halloween films too.”
“Sounds good,” Alex said with a grateful smile. “We’ll figure out when we’re both free.”
“Awesome! I’m pretty much free any time except next weekend because I’m filming in York.
And Laurie’s coming too—he’s going to go and do whatever he fancies while I’m filming.
Then we’re all getting takeaway. It’s going to be so fun.
” I was so glad Laurie was coming with me.
He’d taken a little convincing, just because he hated leaving the funeral home for the weekend in case there was something he needed to attend to, but I’d talked him into it eventually and I was so excited for him to meet everyone.
I wondered if any of our friends were going to say anything about me continuing to film now we were together, but since everyone thought we’d been together for years and they’d never said anything, I doubted they would now.
Lane nodded like my statement was the most interesting thing he’d heard all night. “When are you heading off?”
“Friday afternoon,” I said. “Once we’ve finished work. Then we’re back on Sunday.”
Lane hummed before sipping his beer. “Do you need us to keep an eye on anything while you’re gone?”
“I don’t think so.” It wasn’t like we had any plants that needed watering, and we still hadn’t gotten round to doing the garden, so the flat would be fine.
“Jonathan’s on call all weekend, Fred’s got Laurie’s number and a set of spare keys just in case, so I think we’ll be fine, but thanks for asking! ”
“Good, well, just give us a shout if that changes,” Lane said.
I could’ve sworn he and Will exchanged some sort of look, but maybe I was reading into things too much.
I was sure if they were planning something, they’d tell me since I was great at keeping secrets.
I decided not to think about it too much.
Otherwise I’d just spend the whole weekend badgering them about it and I had much better things to do with my time.
Like Laurie.
“Did you see they’re doing the Fright Night up at the Castle again this year?” Noah asked, neatly changing the subject and easily distracting everyone. “It’s during half-term again. Would anyone like to go?”
“Hell yes!” Spencer cried. “But this time we’re doing different teams for the Pumpkin Trail!”
“You’re just mardy ’cos you lost,” Alex said.
“Yeah kinda, and also because you all gatecrashed mine and Noah’s date,” Spencer said, grinning at his brother.
“Oh come on, that wasn’t our fault,” Lane said. “You can’t complain if we didn’t know it was a date.”
“We can a little,” Noah said, chuckling softly. “But we won’t hold it against you.”
“Wait,” Jamie said. “I missed all of this. You have to fill me in. And what’s this about teams?”
“Oh, it was so fun!” I clapped my hands gleefully, very happy to give Jamie and Henry all the details since they’d missed out on being there. “Okay, so it started last year when Noah got super drunk at Lane and Oliver’s housewarming and ended up going home with Spencer…”