Page 315

Story: Men of Fort Dale

His was a good life. He had a great job with the potential for more. He was whole and healthy, without any serious complications to worry about. He had a family who loved him and the best friends he could ever hope for. And yeah, he had Matt, not necessarily in the way he still found himself wishing, but he had him all the same, and it was a gift.

He just wished his bed wasn’t so lonely at night.

Twelve hours later,he found himself staring up at the arrivals and departures screen at the airport. Squinting, he tried distinguishing the numbers and words dashing across the screen. But for the life of him, he couldn’t process them fast enough. It was probably a good thing they’d taken an Uber to the airport, otherwise, he wasn’t sure they could have made it on time.

“Here,” Matt said to his right.

Nick looked down at the warm cup shoved into his hand, blinking owlishly at it. The rich smell of coffee filled his nose as steam rose from the hole in the lid. He curled his fingers around it with a low sigh of appreciation, bringing the cup to his lips and drinking carefully.

“Bless you,” Nick murmured gratefully.

Matt hummed knowingly, looking up at the screen, eyes darting over the letters and numbers nimbly. Nick contented himself with watching his friend as he sipped the coffee, savoring the bitter taste that served to wake him up almost as much as the caffeine.

He liked watching Matt engrossed in something, even the most trivial things. A small crease formed on his brow, and Nick would swear he could practically hear every thought flit behind his eyes.

“Got the plan?” Nick asked between sips.

And because, of course, he did, Matt nodded. “Don’t worry. We’ve got time.”

Nick looked at the clock on the right-hand side of the screen. “You said our flight was at seven.”

“Seven-thirty.”

“You lied.”

“Because if I didn’t, we’d be rushing right now. Getting you out of bed is a harder fight than half the shit we went through.”

Nick opened his mouth to protest but thought better of it. Sleep had never been something he was all that good with, even as a kid. The inevitable diagnosis of insomnia in his teens hadn’t come as a surprise, though the side effects of the medication they’d given him had been unpleasant.

Thankfully, it hadn’t come into play when he was in the field. Whatever part of his brain kept him from sleeping was turned off while he was with the team and needed rest. As soon as his feet hit safe ground, it came right back, and suddenly, he was struggling to fall asleep. Of course, when he did manage to sleep, it was like trying to raise the dead.

“Well, didn’t we think of everything?” Nick grumbled.

Matt screwed up his eyes thoughtfully. “Got you here early and with caffeine. We got through security and had our bags checked in. Confirmed with your mom what flight it was and the expected arrival time. Have my phone programmed to shoot her a text as soon as I turn airplane mode off, telling her we’ve landed. Oh, and rerouted all your mail to my place because, for whatever reason, the mail carrier doesn’t like to put your mail inthe slot and the last time, someone took the birthday card your mom sent.”

Nick raised a brow. “While I’m not surprised you managed to think all that through, how did you get my mail routed in such a short time?”

“Look, if you know the right people, you can get almost anything done.”

“Blackmail?”

“Hey! Why do you immediately jump to blackmail?”

“Well, murder was the first thing I thought of, but you’re more likely to blackmail someone than murder them.”

“I’m not sure what it says about me that you think I’m willing to blackmail someone.”

“Better than murdering them.”

“At least being murdered means you aren’t hooked to someone else’s every whim and demand.”

“You’ve really thought this through.”

Matt huffed. “I mean, it makes sense if you think about it.”

Which Nick took as the cue for Matt to meticulously explain precisely why he was right. Nick chuckled softly as Matt began to list the reasons, with several examples. Some people found Matt exhausting, long-winded, and occasionally pedantic to the point of annoyance.

Nick found a seat and settled down as Matt moved into his second set of points. He knew he didn’t have to say much to keep Matt going. His friend knew Nick was listening, even if he looked like he was trying to have a staring contest with the floor.

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