Choices - 23. Chapter 23

Chapter 23

“Whatever you’re thinking about must be pretty serious. You look lost in thought.” Alek’s voice broke through Liam’s introspection, and he peered up at the other man with a sheepish smile.

“Sorry. I was just thinking how this time last year I never thought we’d be here, on a date… in public. It’s nice.”

Alek looked embarrassed as he moved the food around on his plate. “I know we should have done this a long time ago. I can’t apologize enough for hiding you away like I did.”

Liam grinned and gathered a forkful of linguine. “You’re not hiding me now. That’s what matters. The past is the past. We can’t do anything about it now, except figure out where we went wrong last time.”

“You mean where I went wrong.”

“No.” Liam set his fork down and gave Alek his full attention. “I mean both of us. Yes, you hid me and yes, you took me for granted, but I made mistakes too. I allowed it to go on for far too long, and didn’t tell you how badly it was affecting me. Sure, I left angry sometimes, but I would always come back when I knew nothing had changed. I sought you out because I missed you so much, and let the problems not matter until it was too much. That’s on me, not you.”

“Li….”

“No, Alek,” Liam replied, his voice firm. “We both fucked this up last time. It’s up to both of us to make sure we don’t do it again. If you promise not to try to pull me back into the closet, I’ll promise to be open with you about my feelings. If you’re making me feel taken for granted, I’ll tell you. Deal?”

Alek blinked at him for a few seconds, looking stunned, before a smile lit up his face. “We have a deal.”

“Good. Now that that’s settled, we can get on with the good parts of this date.”

“Like the kissing?”

Liam scoffed as he chewed on a bite of food. “No kissing on the first date. I’m not that easy.”

“You kind of blew that out of the water already… didn’t you?”

“Hey, no fair. I was comforting you. It doesn’t count.” Liam gave Alek a playful pout, although he knew his eyes were full of mirth.

Alek chuckled and winked at him. “So does that mean I have a chance at another kiss?”

“No kissing on the first date, mister,” Liam repeated, pointing at Alek with his fork.

“Well then, I guess we’ll need to set up a second date as soon as possible.”

Liam shook his head with faked dismay. “It’s so sad. Men have such one-track minds.”

A touch of something against his ankle made Liam jump slightly before he realized it was Alek’s foot. “I hate to break it to you, Li,” Alek said with a mischievous gleam in his eyes, “but you’re a man too, so that one-track mind goes with the territory.”

Liam suppressed a shudder as Alek’s foot slowly moved up his leg to his knee, before it was gone. The simple touch made him shift in his chair in an attempt to adjust himself without being too obvious. Judging by Alek’s amused expression, he’d failed.

“Tease,” Liam whispered, looking around to see if anyone else had noticed them. Alek’s focus, on the other hand, was completely on him.

“I’m only a tease if I don’t follow through.”

Someone cleared their throat, making both men look up. The waiter, whose cheeks were now stained bright red, apologized for the interruption. “I’m sorry, sirs, but I wanted to make sure you didn’t need anything else.”

Alek’s shy smile was adorable. “No, I think we’re good for now. Thank you.”

“Of course.” The man, still looking embarrassed, made a hasty exit.

As soon as he was out of sight, Alek snickered. “I think we may have traumatized the poor guy.”

Liam studied Alek’s face for any sign of discomfort, but only found happiness reflected in his brown eyes. “Didn’t that bother you?” he couldn’t help but ask.

“The waiter catching us flirting?”

“Yeah.”

“No… well I was embarrassed for him. In a place like this, where the majority of customers are people on dates, discretion is pretty important, so he was probably mortified to interrupt us.”

“That’s all?”

“What did…?” Alek tilted his head and considered him for a moment before continuing. “You mean was I embarrassed that someone caught me flirting with you?”

Liam nodded.

“I have to admit I am, a little, but not because of you, or us. I’ve never been much for PDA, so having someone seconds away from seeing me feel you up with my foot? Yes, that bothers me.”

Liam pondered Alek’s answer as he continued to eat his delicious meal. “I can understand that. You’re saying that if you were straight, and with a woman, you’d have the same reaction.”

“Exactly,” Alek responded, sounding relieved that Liam understood. “I don’t mind holding hands, a hug, or even a kiss in public once in a while, but anything more will probably make me uncomfortable, at least until I get used to it. Is that going to be okay? If it’s not I can work on becoming better.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Liam said, holding up his hand to stop Alek’s rambling. “I’m fine with hand holding and an occasional hug or kiss in pubic. I don’t expect you to change everything about yourself for me.”

“I want you to be happy.”

“You make me happy, and I love holding your hand, so that’s enough.”

“If it’s ever not enough….”

“You’ll be the first to know.”

After dinner, which Alek paid for over Liam’s objections, they walked to the theatre, where Liam insisted he pay. He felt it was only fair since he was the one who demanded the date in the first place. Alek, after several minutes of back-and-forth discussion, finally acquiesced with a muttered comment about stubbornness.

The movie wasn’t so much bad as it was unremarkable. Of course, that could also be because most of Liam’s attention was centred on the man sitting beside him. The theatre was busy, but Alek didn’t hesitate to grab Liam’s hand as soon as they sat down. The gentle slide of Alek’s thumb over his knuckles was causing a reaction such a chaste touch had no business inciting. Liam fought the need to either adjust himself or lean into Alek’s body. Ideally, he would love to have Alek’s arm around him, but knew, realistically, it probably wasn’t a great idea. Kingston might not be a bad place for a gay man to live, but it wasn’t exactly Church Street in Toronto either.

The movie ended with Liam having almost no idea what had happened. There’d been explosions, and people yelling, but the plot escaped him.

“Did you like the movie?” Alek asked as they stood up to leave.

“Yeah, it was great.”

Alek raised an eyebrow. “Really? What was the main character’s name?”

Liam blinked, trying to search his memory. “Uh.”

“Okay, where was the movie set?”

“I, umm.”

Alek chuckled and touched his cheek. “I know you weren’t watching. You spent most of the movie looking at me.”

“That’s not….” Liam cleared his throat as he felt heat climb up his neck to his face.

“It’s okay,” Alek leaned close and whispered in his ear. “I like being the centre of your attention. If it helps, I wasn’t paying attention either.”

Liam let out a startled laugh. “Really?”

“Really. There was this really hot guy sitting beside me, and I kept imagining all of the wicked things I could do to him in the dark.”

Liam swallowed hard, his entire body humming with arousal. “We should… we should probably get going.”

Alek grinned and gestured for Liam to head into the aisle. He could practically feel Alek’s warmth close behind him as they exited the theatre. The drive back to Liam’s apartment was quiet, but not uncomfortable, and Liam found he enjoyed the comfort of Alek’s hand covering his.

When they arrived at the apartment complex, Alek hopped out and rounded the truck before Liam had a chance to open the door. With a happy smile, Liam let Alek help him out of the vehicle and preceded the man up the stairs. He was filled with nervous anticipation as they climbed the last few steps.

Liam unlocked his door and turned to invite Alek in, when the man leaned down to give him a kiss on the forehead. “Thank you for agreeing to go out with me,” he said softly before backing away.

“Are you… do you want to come in?”

“Yes,” Alek replied, but the shake of his head contracted his words, “but I shouldn’t. You said you wanted to take things slowly, and you were right. I don’t want to screw this up because we can’t keep our hands off of each other. I won’t risk it. This is too important.”

Liam took a deep breath, trying to calm his libido. Most of him wanted to drag Alek into his apartment and explore the body he’d missed for so long, but the smaller, rational part of him knew Alek was right. Doing what his body was demanding would feel good… so damned good, but it could risk jeopardizing the fragile relationship they had started to rebuild.

“Sunday,” he said, instead of insisting Alek come inside.

“Sunday?”

“For our second date. Your shop is closed on Sunday, so I thought we try again with the movie? Maybe we could find something on Netflix? Order in?”

The happiness on Alek’s face could light up a room. “I’d like that.”

With a smile and a wave, Alek bounded back down the stairs, and Liam turned to let himself into his apartment. Leaning against the door, he closed his eyes. There was no doubt about it: Alek could affect him like no other. Reaching down he palmed his cock, giving it a squeeze. It wasn’t going to take much to set him off. With a groan, he headed down the hall, stripping as he practically ran to the shower. With the hot water pouring down onto his overly sensitized body, he brought up an image of Alek, with that sexy grin, hovering over him. He could practically feel the blanket beneath him as he recalled their last visit to the pond. Alek’s imagined lips ghosted across his jaw to his neck, before teeth gently nipped at a hard nipple. The remembered sensation was enough to send Liam over the edge with a muffled groan.

“Damn,” he panted, with his head bowed under the stream of water. “It’s been too long.”

After a functional wash to clean himself, Liam stepped out of the shower. He was in the process of toweling off when he heard his cell ringing from somewhere in the apartment. After a hurried search, he finally found his pants in a crumpled heap down the hall.

“Hello,” he answered, still out of breath from his earlier activities.

“Li,” Marty’s voice sounded worried. “You okay? You sound out of breath.”

With a roll of his eyes, Liam walked into his bedroom and flopped onto the bed. “I’m fine. I just couldn’t find my phone.”

“So what’s up? How did the hockey game go?”

“It was great.” Liam could hear the smile in his voice. “We all went out to a bar later to celebrate.”

“All?”

“Me, Alek, Corey, and Jason.”

“And Alek was okay with that?”

“He was better than okay with it. He introduced me to his teammates as his ex.”

“Well that’s impressive. It sounds like he’s finally stepped out of that closet.”

“I think so.” Liam paused for a moment, knowing Marty might not like what he said next. “We’re going to try dating.”

“What? Dating?”

“Yeah, you know. When two people go out together to eat, watch movies. Surely it hasn’t been so long that you don’t remember?”

“Don’t be a smartass. You’re going to start dating Alek again? Isn’t that a little quick?”

“We’re taking it slowly this time,” Liam defended.

“How slowly?”

“Well, when he dropped me off from our first date tonight, he kissed me on the forehead and left. Is that slow enough for you?”

“You had a date tonight?”

“Yes.”

“And you didn’t say anything before now because?”

“Because you’re not my parent,” Liam replied in a huff. “I went on a date with a hot guy. I don’t tell you about every date I’ve ever had.”

“Yes, you do,” Marty retorted. “You didn’t tell me about this one because you thought I would tell you not to go.”

“Would you have?” Liam asked, chewing on a fingernail.

“Are you happy, Li? Does Alek make you happy?”

“Yes.”

“Is he making you feel like a dirty secret? Do you think he’s really changed?”

“No, he’s not. He told him friends about me. Hell, after we got back from the police station he even got into an argument with his dad about me.”

“Police station?” Marty’s voice suddenly turned hard. “Why were you at the police station?”

Liam sighed, knowing he was going to be in trouble for not calling Marty sooner. The man’s big brother protective side was pretty fierce. “It wasn’t that bad,” he hedged. “Some asshole at the bar took exception to my gay self and hit me. Alek convinced me to press charges, and took me to the station.”

“Are you okay?” The anger had morphed into concern.

“He got me in the eye. It looks like shit, but it doesn’t bother me much. Alek already gave me hell for not seeing a doctor, and I promised to go if I get headaches or dizziness, so please don’t worry about me.”

“You know I’m not going to stop worrying about you, Li. You’re my brother.”

“I know,” Liam replied with an affectionate smile. “I love you too.”

“You’re really happy with Alek?”

“I am.”

“Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Okay, I believe you’re happy. Alek and I will have a long talk at some point about the proper way to treat my brother, but I promise I won’t knock him out on sight. Good enough?”

Liam laughed, feeling tears prick his eyes. “Thank you.”

“Just be happy, Liam. That’s all I want for you.”

Many and   go out to my rockstar editor and friend, Gary for his dedication and support.  Thank you to all of you who read and support this story.