Chapter 16 #3
By the time he reached the office that housed Seth and Lennox’s business, his breath was rough and ragged, but instead of pausing to get it back under control, he pushed the front door open anyway.
The main office was divided into two sections: a room with several desks, with Lennox’s and Seth’s laptops on them, and a few spare desks, when they had employees come in, and another room, which was a conference room where they met clients.
The office was empty.
Ren moved on recklessly, pushing open the conference room door.
Only to stop in his tracks.
There was Seth, a button-down shirt on with a tie, and a pair of tight navy slacks that fit him so well that Ren wanted to peel him out of them with his teeth.
Next to him were two of the most attractive people that Ren had ever seen. And he looked at Seth regularly. Slept next to him too.
They looked familiar, and Ren realized, a moment too late, what Seth had told him he’d be doing this morning: finalizing and signing his contract with Diego and Benji from Star Shadow.
And all three of them—the two hugely popular pop stars and his boyfriend, his fucking boyfriend—were staring at him.
“Lorenzo,” Seth said in that drawl of his, just edged with the Southern accent he’d grown up with, “did we have something planned that I didn’t remember?”
He knew that they didn’t, so no doubt he was trying to save face.
But Ren was beyond saving face.
Which . . . that said it all, didn’t it?
Ren shook his head. “I need to talk to you.”
“I’m . . . I’m a little busy,” Seth said, clearly trying to be diplomatic.
Could he wait? Ren supposed he could. But he’d come all the way here to say it, and he wasn’t going to leave with it unsaid.
“Could you just take five minutes? I promise to make it quick.”
The one that Ren was pretty sure was Benji—he’d had that horrible solo album when Star Shadow had been on a break—smiled at Seth. “Seems pretty important,” he said, his expression knowing and amused.
Seth shot him a look that said, I don’t know what you’re doing, but I’m willing to go along with it because it’s you.
Though Ren had known, unequivocally, that Seth loved him back, the knowledge sang through him a second time, twice as loud as the first.
“It’s important,” Ren reassured him. “Very important. Life-altering. Life-changing.”
“You’d better talk to the guy,” Diego said in that soft-spoken way of his.
“I’ll . . .” Seth hesitated. “I’ll be right back.”
He followed Ren out the door, and shut it behind him.
“What’s going on?” he demanded to know. “Are you okay? Is everything at the food truck lot okay?”
“Everything is fine. At least it seemed to be,” Ren said. “I came here because . . . well, you know that movie, When Harry Met Sally?”
Seth stared at him, incredulous. “You came here to make a date to watch one of your romantic comedies?”
“No,” Ren said. “But one of the characters says something that I never understood but I suddenly do now. He says that when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with someone, you want the rest of your life to start right now.”
“And . . . this is how you feel?” That Seth looked surprised was an understatement. But Ren pressed forward anyway. He’d come here, hadn’t he? He’d run all the way here. There’d been times he’d refused to go on dates with guys because he was having a bad hair day.
But his hair was sweaty and mussed and a mess, and he discovered that he did not give a single shit. And he knew that Seth wouldn’t either, because he loved him.
He loved him.
“I’ve been very stupid,” Ren said gravely, reaching for Seth’s hands, gripping them tightly. “Incredibly stupid . . . monumentally stupid . . . blindly stupid . . .”
The corner of Seth’s mouth quirked up. “Blind, huh?”
“Unbelievably,” Ren said seriously. “I didn’t know we were dating. I mean, I knew, but I wouldn’t think about it. And I did the same thing when it was clear we were doing more than dating, that I was your boyfriend. I’m your boyfriend, right?”
Maybe Gabe had been wrong. Ren didn’t think so, but he held his breath anyway, and watched as a slow, brilliant smile broke over Seth’s features, like the first rays of sunshine.
“Yes,” Seth said. “I would consider you my boyfriend.”
“Then there’s nothing left to be confused about,” Ren said. “I love you, you love me, and that’s what I came here and had to say, because once I realized, I couldn’t leave it unsaid. Not any longer.”
Seth pulled him in, his hands cradling Ren’s face. He didn’t give a shit that he was a mess. Ren’s heart soared. “I do love you,” he said. “And I knew you loved me, too, but it sure feels good to hear it.” He hesitated. “You’re not going to freak out and run, right?”
“I did freak out,” Ren said honestly, because there was no room left not to see in his heart what Seth meant to him.
It was shining like a beacon, burning more brightly now than it had before.
It was inescapable, and Ren realized, with a rush, that he didn’t want to escape it.
He wanted to embrace it. “But when I ran, I ran straight to you.”
Seth kissed him then. It was messy and it was awkward and it was more than a little damp, but Ren had discovered that none of that mattered.
Love was what really mattered.