Page 4 of Back to You

“No.”

“Yeah. But don’t worry, I’ll figure it out.”

Marcus shrugged. “Look, I know fuck-all about relationships, everyone knows that. But I’m always happy to listen if you need it.”

Brandon smiled at his friend. Marcus was quite open about his resistance to having a relationship. He was a hot, young, bisexual man, and he made no bones about not wanting a commitment at this point in his life.

“Thanks Marcus.”

“Anytime man, I’m here for youuuu!” Marcus trilled as he darted back out of the kitchen. He stuck his head back in. “Oh, Michelle said things were getting too deep over here so she’s in the office.”

Michelle was the business savvy behind Bean Bistro. She kept an office in the play half of the space. She generally only worked during the hours her kids were in school, but sometimes the kids could be found in the office, running around the play area, or in the cafe harassing their beloved uncle for cookies.

Speaking of the devils …

“Uncle B! Hi! Mom said we needed to come cheer you up!” Riley said as she and her younger brother, Samuel, burst into the kitchen. “Can we help you make cookies?”

It had been something of a surprise when tough-girl Michelle and her Army sergeant husband, Steven, had announced they were having a baby. Not that they weren’t great parents, but Brandon distinctly recalled several times seeing Michelle flee from her friends’ babies.

“It’s gotta be different when it’s your kid,” she had said at the time. “And I can handle it, I’m smart.” Her eyes were slowly widening as she talked. “Right? I can handle kids.”

“Michelle, you can handle any damn thing you want to handle.”

“Shut up, you’re getting sap on me. It’s not good for the baby.”

Now, Brandon was the proud uncle to 8-year-old Riley and 6-year-old Samuel, and Michelle was the badass mom he knew she would be. She loved her kids fiercely, and they were growing up to be very cool little humans.

“Sure, let’s make cookies. You want to make chocolate chip or oatmeal butterscotch?”

“Can we make lemon?” Samuel asked.

“Yeah, haven’t sold those in a while, they do well,” Brandon decided.

As the kids ran to wash their hands and get their little aprons, Brandon took a deep breath. He had his family, he had a successful business. Now it was time to decide what to do about his love life.

But that was for another day. Now he had cookies to bake.

CHAPTER 2

ETHAN SAT AT his desk, facing down hour 12 of his day, and knowing that his life was wildly off track.

He let his head fall into his hands as he thought back to that morning. Brandon hadn’t kissed him goodbye. Brandon always kissed him goodbye. It didn’t seem like that big a deal, but Ethan knew Brandon. He was a creature of habit. Shower, dress, kiss Ethan goodbye and out the door with a pat on the head for Barnabus, who would be cranky at being woken up.

Ethan had never let on that he was awake for Brandon’s kiss every morning. He always flopped back to sleep for the three hours until his own alarm went off at 7 a.m., but he always woke up for his kiss goodbye.

Maybe because it was the most interaction he’d had with Brandon in … how many days? He looked at his calendar and winced. How many weeks, more like.

He knew Brandon was upset about the hours he was working lately. But he was so close to being a senior associate. He was getting great feedback from the higher-ups, he knew the promotion was coming, it had to be.

Getting to that level would mean so much for Ethan. He would be on the partner track, able to delegate a bit, spend more time with Brandon. More than that, he’d be meeting a goal he’d set for himself all those years ago, when he’d had nothing and no one. Security.

If only he was able to explain that to Brandon. He’d tried, the words just wouldn’t come.

He heard the buzz of his phone and unearthed it from under one of the piles of papers.

Brandon: Heading to Marcus’s show. See you when I see you.

Ethan cringed. Yeah, Brandon was pissed.

---