Chapter 2
Chapter Two
Riley was relieved to see Wes the next morning as promised. He rolled in at his usual time, brown leather work bag slung over his shoulder, familiar green button-down that meant he had a staff meeting later.
"Hey, you—the usual?" Riley asked.
"And a muffin, please." Wes's smile was a little bigger than yesterday, and he seemed much calmer. Riley's own stress level dropped seeing his friend nearly back to normal.
"You got it." He got the order ready himself, not above pulling rank over his coworker Nora. He walked around the counter and brought Wes’s order to him so he could check he was really okay.
He held out the bag with the muffin and Wes reached out to take it. Riley froze, bag inches from Wes's outstretched hand. "Your ring.”
The wedding band Wesley had worn every day Riley had known him was gone.
"Oh. Yeah. I took it off when I signed the papers yesterday."
"The papers?" Riley was missing something.
Wesley cleared his throat. "My, uh, divorce papers. I'm officially divorced."
Riley's stomach swooped unpleasantly as he processed about ten competing emotions at once.
"Oh my god, I had no idea you were going through that.
Are you okay?" He and Wes didn't talk about their personal lives that much, but he would have thought Wes might have mentioned the fact his marriage was ending.
Divorces didn't happen overnight, did they?
"It's kind of a complicated story. It's been a long time coming. A real long time." Wes looked at the floor, then back up at Riley. "But I'm okay. It's for the best, believe me. I'm not used to it, yet I guess.”
"Sure, yeah, that makes sense," Riley babbled. He really didn't know what to say—hardly any of his friends were even married yet, let alone divorced, but Wes didn't seem sad, exactly, that his relationship with his wife was over. Just a little lost. "It's still new."
"Right. It's…it's been so long since I was single, I don't know what to do with myself. Georgia and I were still living together until yesterday. She's moving all her things out today, but—yeah, it's…different." Wes looked out the window onto the street outside, his mind seemingly far away.
They were still living together while they were divorcing? Riley’s mouth thinned into a flat line of disapproval. Wes had clearly been through something traumatic, even if he was trying to shrug it off like a bad cold.
"Let me take you out after work," he said, without thinking it through. "To…" Celebrate seemed like the wrong word, but there was something in Wes's eyes. He needed to be around people who cared about him, that much was plain to see. “…to toast to a new phase of life."
"A new phase. Yeah." Wes's hand tightened around his coffee cup. "That actually sounds…good. Okay. Thanks."
"Meet me at McGinty’s?” He named the casual Irish pub down the block. “Six?"
"Yeah. Thanks, Riley." Wes backed toward the door. "Although are you sure you won't turn into a pumpkin if you step outside of Hot Brew?”
"Huh?"
"It's just I've never once seen you except in here. Wasn't sure if you were actually a ghost tied to this place forever or something."
"You'll have to show up tonight to find out," Riley said, letting a note of flirtation enter his voice.
Wes just laughed. The bells on the front door chimed as he let himself out.
Huh—he and Wes never flirted. Talked, yes. Bantered, definitely. But never outright flirtation.
Because Wes was taken and probably straight and Riley didn't crush on his friends in relationships, no matter how perfect their lips and biceps and stupidly floppy hair were. But things were different now. Wes was no longer taken. He was single, by his own admission.
That changed everything.