Page 17 of His Middle

Noah snorted. “Yeah, I’m good. That was stressful enough.”

“You’re not feelingbadfor that asshole, are you?”

Noah leaned against one of the metal work tables, sitting on his hands to keep from incessantly fidgeting with them. “No, not at all. But you know me…”

Arlen grunted. “I do. Hey. It’ll be cool, Sawyer knows what to do.”

Noah licked his lips. “I’ll say. He hasn’t been here a day and already he has all these brilliant ideas.”

“Ooh.” Arlen rubbed his palms together. “Do tell.”

Noah glanced up at the kitchen clock and noted it was almost a quarter after eleven. “Actually, we’d better get going on whatever prep we need to do, Mr. Mean Hamburger. I’ve always had directions the few times I’ve been back here, so you get to take the lead. I don’t want Sawyer to come back here and catch us slacking off.”

A mischievous grin tugged at the corners of Arlen’s lips. “Sounds like someone doesn’t want to disappoint their Daddy.”

Noah gasped then frowned. “Shh. What’s wrong with you? I’d freak out if he overheard you saying that!”

Arlen rolled his eyes. “Jesus. Calm down. I can be discreet.”

“You can?”

Arlen pursed his lips. “I certainly can.” He sidled closer. “But seriously, you’ve always had the hots for him. It’s not as if he can’t tell.”

Noah choked on his own spit then busted out in a round of coughing. “H-he can? How do you know? Is it that obvious?” Noah buried his face in his hands. “Oh shit. And I asked him to stay at the house! He must totally think I lured him here just to get into his pants, that I don’t care about the club, only his cock!”

Arlen grabbed his shoulders and gave him a shake. “Dude. Get a grip. I’m sure that’s the last thing he’s thinking. Anyone who’s been around you for five minutes in the past few months knows how anxious you are about the club, how much it means to you. There’s no way in hell he’s thinking you’re faking that.”

Noah let his hands fall to his sides then slowly raised his head. “Are you sure? Because it’s true. I mean, yeah…” He cleared his throat. “I’ve always had a crush on Sawyer and hoped he might see me as boy potential, but he’s never acted like he was interested. Also, I wouldn’t want him to think I’m a player and cheater by going after him when I already have a Daddy. That’s not cool.”

Arlen winced. “Oops. I just remembered. I got so distracted by the Sawyer and Dirk saga it flew right out of my brain.”

Noah’s gut clenched. “What did?”

Arlen set down his cell phone, then worked his hand into the tiny pocket of his booty shorts. Eventually, he was able to free a very crumpled up piece of notepad paper. Noah recognized it from the rainbow pad Garth always kept on his desk at his apartment. He wrote everything on that thing.

“I read it, sorry.” Arlen handed him the mangled note. “He didn’t seal it, just handed it to me when he came in last night. I was covering Kim’s shift.”

Noah flattened the small piece of paper on the table. He didn’t need psychic powers to know what the note said before reading it.

Yup. He’s dumping me.

A sense of relief filled him that he wouldn’t have to face the guy after all, but at the same time, it never felt good to be rejected.

“He doesn’t exactly say much.” Noah shrugged. “It’s for the best. We weren’t clicking very well anyway.”

Arlen looked away, rubbing his forehead in a way that told Noah there was more to the note than the few sentences that said he didn’t think it was working out, followed by a ‘you’re a good boy, but it’s time we moved on from each other’.

“What?” Noah grabbed Arlen’s arm when he wouldn’t face him. “What else do you know?”

Arlen let out a long sigh before facing him again. “What difference does it make? You’ve been unhappy with him for a while, and now you don’t have to be the bad guy. Rejoice.”

“The difference it makes is that not knowing will eat at me until I go insane. I repeat: What do you know?”

Arlen groaned. “Fine. Just remember you didn’t want him anyway, all right?”

Noah pressed his lips together. “Arlen…I’m about to throat punch you.”

“Okay, okay.” His expression turned pitying and a rock landed in Noah’s stomach. “So, he walked in with a date last night. I guess he’d booked one of the scene rooms. I thought, damn, didn’t even wait to give you the note first. I mentioned that to Eddie and he said…” Arlen winced again. “I guess Garth has been coming in with different boys for the past few months. He always arrives late, I’m assuming so neither of us would spot him, but I suppose he decided it was pointless now that he was breaking up with you.”

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