Seventeen 

 

JC and Lance stared at one another. “Guys, don’t fight, okay?” Nick asked softly.

“You two need to talk. Come inside to the office,” Justin suggested, gently tugging on Lance’s sleeve. “C’mon.”

“Go,” Chris ordered, giving JC a shove.

The group walked through the dining room to the stairs that led to the second floor.  Diners stared at them curiously, but they did not stop eating.  “Here you go. Take as long as you need,” Justin said. He opened the door, flipped on the light, and smiled. “Go ahead.”

Nick, Justin and Chris disappeared back down the stairs.  Lance walked into the office. JC followed him, closing the door behind them. “What are you doing here?” He almost growled. He didn’t want to see Lance. He didn’t want to look at him, didn’t want to remember the taste, smell and feel of him.

“I’m here to check into my investment.”  Lance sat on the edge of the desk and folded his arms across his chest. He looked every inch the businessman.

“Investment?”

“I’m the one who gave the money to start this place,” Lance replied.

JC rolled his eyes. “All the restaurants in California and you had to come back here? Probably the only place that would take your money.”

“For your information…” Lance struggled to sound polite.  “…they asked me.  Joey and Justin stopped by on their way to Hawaii.”

JC blinked. “Really? Justin never said…”

“Do you REALLY think he would have mentioned my name to you?” Lance interrupted.  “Think about it, JC.  Justin loves you like a brother, but even HE knows when to stop.”

“What do you want to talk to me about?” JC sighed.

“I don’t want to talk to you about anything!  Justin’s the one that shoved us in here,” Lance retorted. “You don’t want to listen to anything I have to say, anyway.”

“You’re a good actor, Lance. I couldn’t believe anything you said, regardless.”  JC looked at Lance.

“What if I said I was just a boy, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love me?” Lance asked.  JC snorted.

“Figures you’d quote a movie…and not even one of your OWN.”

“This is insane.” Lance headed for the door.

“You coulda been a bit more discreet,” JC said, and Lance stopped in his tracks. “I mean, if you were planning on meeting up with AJ in Paris, you could have simply done it while I was out painting or something.”

“You STILL think I was hooking up with him?” Lance asked incredulously. “Have you seen ANYTHING in the media about us being together? No. You haven’t. Because we’re NOT together. I want nothing to do with his skanky ass.  He used me.  He was trying to get me to get back together with him. I was NOT interested!”

“You sure looked like you were,” JC snapped, but his defenses were falling. Lance was saying everything JC really wanted to hear.

“I couldn’t believe the audacity of his thinking.  He actually thought that I’d want him over you. He thought that being involved with a famous, wealthy model was more important than being involved with the person who held my heart. I was shocked…and then you walked up.”

“I’m not a model…or famous…or wealthy…” JC said. “He’s right.”

“When have I EVER said I wanted all of that?” Lance asked. “Josh, you’re more gorgeous than any model…at least to me. You’re going to be famous in your own right, someday, when you start really displaying your art. And wealth?  I have a bazillion dollars in the bank…do I really look happy?”

JC stared at Lance, who looked pale and thin and pretty much miserable.  “No,” he admitted.

“I’m shit without you, Josh,” Lance said sadly. “I miss you so much. But if you’ll let AJ, and your own paranoia, come between what we could have, then I can’t do anything about it.”

“I’ve missed you, too,” JC said.  Lance walked back to JC and put his hands on JC’s face.

“I dream about you at night,” Lance said softly, cupping JC’s face in his hands and trailing his thumbs over JC’s cheekbones. “I just dream about holding you and laughing with you and making love to you.  I’ve been miserable without you.”

“I’m sorry,” JC whispered.

“Don’t be.  Just trust my love for you, okay? Trust that I love you…more than anything in the world.”

“I love you, too.”  JC’s voice trembled.  Lance sighed with relief and pulled JC into a crushing embrace.

 

“I don’t hear anything,” Chris whispered. He stood up as Justin came quietly running up the stairs.

“Here,” he said breathlessly, handing Chris a glass.

“Ah.”  Chris put the glass to the door, then his ear to the glass. “I don’t hear anything. I mean, I hear something, but they’re not fighting.”

“They’re probably making up,” Nick said with a grin. “Most people aren’t as loud at that as you are.”

Chris had the decency to blush.  “C’mon,” Justin said, starting down the stairs again.  “Drinks are on me.”

The End

 

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