Page 45 of Overstaying His Welcome

Surprise surprise.

It was a lie. All of it.

The sleeping around and the flirting. He wasn’t interested in anyone because he had been in a fully committed secret relationship with a closeted politician for years.

“We’re not going to give him shit about this,” Ronan said to the lot of us. “Tank is happy. Genuinely happy. And if they’ve been together as long as they claim…”

“Then there’s no separating them,” Orion finished.

Ronan nodded sharply. “Besides, he’s not a threat to us. If anything, we’re the ones who’ll make him look bad, not the other way around.”

“His father didn’t seem too happy about us,” I added. It was just enough to be in the conversation, but not so much as to give them my opinion.

Cohen shot me a glance. He knew I was quieter than usual, which was a feat considering I didn’t talk a ton anyway.

I gave him a look to say, ‘just feeling things out’, and he rolled his eyes. Smirking at that, I tuned back in to what everyone else had to say.

Arick was biting his bottom lip as he spun his phone around in his hands. Whatever it was he wanted to say, he didn’t feel right to inject himself into the conversation.

Damari too, if the way he hid behind Ronan was any indication.

Archie, the last of the partners, wasn’t feeling so shy. He’d come with us despite trying to convince Takeshi he should stay at the hospital too. Chance proved to know enough sign language, along with Tank, that Takeshi said he’d be fine conversing with others.

“I think it’s great, honestly. Tank is happy. Chance seems happy now that he went off on his father. If anything, this puts us in a better position,” Archie threw out.

“How do you figure?”

He turned to Ronan. “Because we have a politician in our ranks. Even if Chance doesn’t win, he’s got the people’s popular vote. He’s a young, handsome man who believes in change for the better. They’re going to support him when it comes to his relationship.”

“Not all of them will,” I said. “There are more than a few bigots in the bunch. There will be backlash. Maybe even to us directly.”

Cohen nodded at my words. “Yeah, what he said. Plus, Chance’s father was a shit to us. I think that’s how it will go at first.”

“Maybe. Or maybe not. We won’t know until it all comes out to the public. For now, I think getting their space ready is going to be the best bet. I don’t see Chance leaving his side anytime soon, do you?”

We all shook our heads at Archie’s observation. There was no way they’d be apart. We’d seen how harried Chance was in the hours we went without updates. When Detective Patterson called us to say they had Tank listed as a John Doe at the hospital, he nearly burned rubber tearing out of the office.

I’ve never seen love like those two have. It’s palpable.

No wonder they were never in the same room together. Others wouldn’t have been able to miss it.

I’m still not sure how we did.

We’ve worked with Tank for years. Ran in the same circles and everything. How could he have fooled us all?

“The two are stuck together like glue,” Damari piped up. “It’s cute, right?”

He hadn’t been there to see it all in real time, but the way we described it made the reality of things clear enough for him. Hell, it should have been clear to us all.

I think we were all still too fueled by the adrenaline of the last few days. First Chance Sheppard, politician extraordinaire, showed up claiming our boss had been taken from his home. Then we had to watch footage of a beaten and bleeding Tank. From there, it was dead end after dead end until the call from Patterson.

And after all was said and done, we got to witness a confrontation between Chance and his father. What a fucking mess it all turned out to be.

“I think there isn’t much we can do. We need to get their room ready, like Archie suggested. Then we just need to be there for them. Support Tank the way he’s supported us.” I made a point to look at Cohen. He needed to see how serious my words were.

For all the humor and levity my boyfriend brought to the room, he was also a bit of a pessimist when it came to change. He’d struggled through each new relationship that formed with our friends, though he did well to hide it.

With Tank settling down too, and in the oddest of plot twists as well, I could tell he was bothered more than he let on. I kept his gaze until he nodded and bowed his head.

---