Chapter 2

“I’ll see you tomorrow, Eddie.”

“Yeah. Drive carefully and call me if there are any problems.”

Josh buckled Patrick into the seat belt of the passenger side of his old beat-up truck. One of these days he would replace the damn truck, but it still ran pretty well even if it wasn’t exactly pretty.

“You okay there, kid?”

“I’m fine. And I’m only a year younger than you. Not even. Just a few months.”

“I know, but you’ll always be a kid to me.” Josh got in and started the truck. Patrick’s condominium was less than ten miles from the bar. Not many cars on the road this time of night, but Josh decided there was no need to speed. He’d rather they make it to their destination in one piece.

Over the years, first as a patron of the bar and now as co-owner, Josh knew a few people had wandered out of the bar having drunk more than they should. Early on in their ownership, he and Eddie had decided to continue the previous owner’s free cab ride home policy. They’d used it a few times. But that didn’t deter everyone and there had been a few nasty accidents on this road.

Patrick leaned heavily on the passenger door, his head resting against the cracked window.

“Do you think you might be sick?” Josh asked. “I can pull over.”

“As much of a piece of shit as this truck is, do you think anyone would notice if I puked inside?”

He winced over the surly tone. Apparently the detached Patrick had been replaced once more by the hostile one.

“I’d notice. Do you need me to pull over or not?”

“No.”

Josh didn’t quite believe him, but didn’t see how arguing would help. If Patrick got sick all over himself and Josh’s truck, he’d make Patrick clean it.

Right. You will not.

He sighed and shook his head.

“What’s that sigh for?”

He gripped the steering wheel hard, turning his knuckles a pale, ghostly white in the dim glow of the dashboard lights. “Just wondering how long this is going to go on.”

Patrick lifted his head off the glass and glanced at him. “What?”

“It’s been three years,” he said quietly.

“Oh. Sorry, I didn’t know grief had a time limit.”

“Normal grieving doesn’t last this long, Patrick. No one expects you to forget Andrew or anything, but this…this isn’t normal.”

Patrick snorted. “I come here once a year on the day he died. Even you can’t call that excessive.”

“Even me?”

“Yeah, being the cold, heartless bastard you are. If this had happened to you I guess you would have gotten over it in twenty-four hours, huh?”

“Patrick—”

“What am I saying? That implies you actually cared enough about someone to bother to form an actual relationship past a one-night stand.”

His jaw tightened. He willed himself not to get drawn into this same fight. Patrick was drunk. Josh, however, was completely sober.

Whenever Patrick got mad at him, which was fairly often considering how little they saw of each other now, he found a way to bring up their one-night together. It was the summer after Patrick and Andrew graduated high school. Josh had been a year ahead of them. Patrick and Andrew weren’t yet a couple. One particularly hot summer night they’d been smoking a little too much pot and suddenly he was kissing Patrick.

Unfortunately, the next morning Patrick thought the sex had meant more than Josh did. Josh was the first to admit he’d been young, stupid, and a bit of an ass at the time. But they’d had a huge fight about it and the next thing he knew, Andrew was Patrick’s new boyfriend.

The silence in the truck became thick and nearly unbearable.

“My point is, I doubt Andrew would want you to do this every time this day comes around.”

“Andrew didn’t give a fuck about me either,” Patrick said, his voice hollow. He rested his head on the cracked window once more, closing his eyes. “Am I so unlovable?”

Josh swallowed heavily. “Andrew was sick. What happened was not your fault in any way. You know that, right?”

“Sure, whatever.”

He turned down the street where Patrick’s condo was located.

“You can just drop me here at the corner. I can walk the rest of the way.”

“No way. I’m going to see you inside. Don’t even bother arguing.” He pulled into the driveway and drove to the back of the condo complex. “If you give me a call in the morning I’ll pick you up and take you back to your car.” He found a visitor spot not too far from Patrick’s front door and parked.