Travis
TRAVIS
“Thank you both for coming. I know you’re both angry with me, and you have every right to be.”
Jasper stood at the head of the rectangular dining table, silhouetted by the sun, so he practically glowed. If I didn’t know him better, I’d have thought he timed it perfectly, so he looked hot as hell, standing there in his tight white t-shirt and his low-hung ripped jeans, his hands in his pockets making his muscles pop and his bare feet making him look relaxed and at home, despite the pinched look of worry on his face. I couldn’t get over his new appearance. He looked so unlike the Jasper I’d known. Maybe it was for the best. It was easier to hate this version of him. He felt unfamiliar despite how hot he looked with his short hair and clean-shaven face.
“You’re the boss,” I grumbled. “We’re just your minions, doing as we’re told.”
I kept my eyes pinned on Jasper. Yes, I was angry with him, but I was even more pissed off with the man next to me because no matter how nice he appeared and how ridiculous it seemed, I couldn’t shake the feeling that Finn Wells had somehow stolen my man. Despite him never being mine.
“Do you need something, Professor?” Finn asked, causing my jaw to harden with annoyance.
“How can you be so nice?” I muttered.
“What?” Finn asked.
I turned in my seat, looking across at him. I’d managed to avoid both of them today, going out on the boat while we tested robots and took some observed samples so we could QA their data collection, so I’d not seen Finn and seeing him there, wearing a deep blue shirt with a corset over the top, caught me off guard. He was smaller than me and Jasper, thinner, but ridiculously toned. After I found out who my ‘competition’ was, I checked him out, not expecting him to be an ex-ballet and contemporary dancer. I refused to think about how long I spent watching videos of him.
There was something incredibly charming about Finn, but I refused to fall for it.
“I said, how can you be so nice?”
“Because it takes nothing to be polite.”
“Even if he used you?”
“Travis,” Jasper chided. “That’s not true.”
I scoffed. “It’s what you think, though, isn’t it, Twinkle?”
His eyes widened, his expression turning murderous, and I kind of liked that I’d ruffled his perfectly calm feathers.
“Oh, great name. Is that because I look like a twink, or because I’m a dancer… because, while I know you’re some sort of deep sea whizz, I don’t think you have the brain power to come up with a name all by your pretty little self.”
I brought my hands to my chest. “Aw, you think I’m pretty. Maybe we should cut out the professor and get together ourselves.”
I winked, and Finn’s hands curled round the arms of the chair.
“That’s enough,” Jasper interrupted. “Don’t be a dick, Trav. It doesn’t suit you.”
I lifted my brow in his direction. “Being nice didn’t work that well for me, so I’m trying something new. What? Are you going to sack me?”
Silence fell across the room. I knew I was being a dick, and I hated it, but I was hurt. Hurt that he’d come out after he’d spent years with me. Hurt that he’d run to Finn. Hurt that Finn had got to touch him, taste him, fuck him.
My heart ached at the thought.
“Look, I want to talk to you both, then if you still want to go, you can leave. I’ll call everyone in the industry and tell them you’re free to take a new job.”
I sat straighter. “Really?”
Jasper looked between us. “Really.” He pulled out the chair and sat, gripping the back of his neck as he took a long, audible breath.
“I had no idea I was gay, Trav. I swear. None. But now I think about it, I think I craved you. Your touch, those bloody hugs, your smile, those head rubs I’d come for every night. I think I started to realise what we had was more than a friendship. And then I met Finn.” His attention switched to Twinkle, and I rolled my lips into my mouth so I didn’t act like a brat and call him it again.
Finn stared back at Jasper, wide eyed like a love sick puppy. I knew he was pissed off with Jasper too as they’d not spoken to each other since I arrived, their work conversations in the office frostier than a snowman.
“You make me feel so safe to be myself. I came home to find myself, and there you were, unapologetically you.”
I wanted to be angry, but I had to admit that I liked that Jas had found that. He’d been so unhappy for such a long time. Maybe he had needed Finn to help him unlock who he truly was. Although, I refused to let him know I thought that. I kept my face fixed in angry mode.
“Seeing you dance was such a moment. I don’t think I’ll ever forget seeing you move and then realising it was you.” He sighed, leaning back in his chair. “What I’m trying to say is, I would never have got here without you both. And even now I understand that I like men, I’m not looking about, thinking how hot everyone is… I only have eyes for the two of you. But that’s the problem. I am attracted to you both. I know that’s wrong, and I’m messed up, but I want to be honest. For the first time in my life, I want to be open about how I feel, and I’m feeling a lot… for you both.”
I waited for the punchline, but one didn’t come.
I looked to Finn, whose mouth had gone slack as he stared at Jasper and then back to the man in front of me.
“Are you saying what I think you’re saying? You want to what? Share? Fuck us both?” I sneered my disgust, even though, to my surprise, talking about sharing made my cock twitch to life. “I don’t share and don’t fuck twinks.”
Jasper looked like he was about to speak, but Finn got in there first, pushing up to stand, his smooth complexion pinking as his head moved between us. “I’ve kept my thoughts to myself up until now. You,” he turned to me. “You’re jealous because I got his first kiss and his first orgasm, but fuck you. I’m not apologising for that. And stop calling me a twink. I hate that name. No, scrap that. I hate Twinkle more.”
Angry Finn was rather spicy and unexpected. He turned his rage to Jasper.
“And you. I’m sorry, did you think that you could fool around with me and then, because this one”—he pointed in my direction—“turns up, you can just ghost me like my feelings don’t matter. Well, they do. You hurt me, Professor. Shit, you made me cry and after everything that happened with Bobby, I didn’t need that.”
Jasper’s expression crumbled, and I wondered what Bobby had done to Twinkle.
Finn put his hands on his hips, drawing my attention to his narrow waist and the outline of his cock in his way too tight trousers. I licked my lips involuntarily, before berating myself for another weird reaction to this man I was in no way attracted to.
Finn let out a loud sigh before stepping away from the table. “Actually, I’m going to make this easy for everyone involved. Professor, I quit. I can’t do this. I won’t do this. You hurt me and you’ve not even apologised.”
“But—” Jasper tried to speak, but Finn was on a roll.
“No, I’m done.” Then he turned to me. “Now you don’t have to put up with the twink, and you get Jasper all to yourself. Oh, and the good news is, we didn’t fuck, so I didn’t get all his firsts. Go, knock yourself out.”
And with that, he turned and stormed out of the room, leaving us alone.