Page 12

Brad

T he second I saw Alex turn off the street from the living room window, I grabbed sneakers and hurled myself out the door. I didn’t know if he was getting the bus to the restaurant or whatever, but I had to catch him.

Because I needed to make sure he was safe.

He didn’t tell me who he was dating, but she could be some kind of man-eater who was just out to fuck him or something. Alex needed better than that. He needed someone who was going to love and appreciate him, and all that shit.

Alex needed someone to protect him tonight, and who else was going to do it better than me?

But, after all his fussing about leaving early, he literally walked six blocks to the snobby, posh place on the corner of the main street.

He seriously worried way too much.

Like, I wasn’t stalking stalking him. I just happened to stay exactly five feet behind him the whole time he walked down the block. And maybe I shot some evil at the people passing him by on the street. But they shouldn’t have been giving him appreciative looks when they didn’t know anything about him.

I mean, I did that to literally any hot girl who checked me out, but it was totally different.

He was my best friend on his first date, and I had to make sure he was safe.

I pursed my lips, watching through the restaurant window as he gave his name to the ma?tre d’ at 7:45PM and just breezed straight on through.

I mean, we were on hockey scholarships, and Alex wasn’t exactly rolling in it. Neither of us were. So, who was special enough to him that he was shelling out that kind of money?

Okay, maybe I started hovering outside the restaurant like a bit of a weirdo, kind of hiding behind one of the pillars on the veranda, but I had to see who he was meeting. As long as I grabbed an eyeful and sussed she was fine, I’d leave it. I could go home, then stay up so I could grill him about it when he came back—if he came back.

They led him straight to a window seat, smack bang in the middle of the row, looking out onto a pretty fountain and the evening diners.

My nerves were already hopping about, and, of course, when his gaze panned out over the veranda that edged onto the street, the only sane thing to do was throw myself to the sidewalk behind a short row of trimmed bushes.

Totally ignoring the strange looks I got from some diners, and from people passing by on the street, I craftily positioned myself so I could lean against the wooden fence of the veranda and keep an eye on Alex.

My plan was perfect. Nothing could go wrong.

I was bulky as fuck, but I had this superpower called ‘bullshitting’ that let me get away with anything I wanted.

So, crouching behind the bushes, weird fucking nerves shaking in me, I drew in a deep breath, preparing myself for the big reveal.

But Alex just sat there.

And sat there.

And sat there.

And by the time my calves were killing me, I was prepared to shoot up and storm in, get myself in that chair across from him and be his date instead.

Tommy kept weaving around the restaurant, and maybe I would have cared if it had just been him, but I was too focused on Alex to be bothered that Tommy was there.

It kind of explained some things about him, like the weird cuts on his hands I’d sometimes see, but we didn’t exactly talk that much, so I never actually asked.

It was 8:05PM before a familiar figure cut through the restaurant. Five minutes late was totally unacceptable. I would have never left Alex waiting like that.

I tracked the figure across the restaurant, hoping it was just a coincidence. But he locked eyes with Alex, and Alex smiled, and suddenly Lance Austin was leaning over the table and pressing a kiss against my best friend’s cheek.

My brain did that thing again—the thing where the loading screen lagged and the bar just wasn’t fucking moving.

It didn’t matter how many times I blinked, Lance still wouldn’t go away. He wasn’t a glitch or a bug. He was right there, just grinning at Alex, chatting with Tommy, laughing at Alex’s expression. He was touching Alex, stroking Alex, making Alex blush, and smirking at Alex like he was going to rip off the shirt I’d chosen for him at any moment.

He had totally captured all of Alex’s attention and I just crouched there, watching for who knows how long.

When my brain finally loaded, my thoughts picked up, and I realized Alex wasn’t just on a date with Lance Austin… He was on a date with a guy. With a man. With someone with a cock.

And suddenly all that shit I said about a pommel horse took on a totally different tone. Because maybe Alex wasn’t going to be the fucking horse.

And that was so far from okay that I’d already decided I would go in there and drag Alex away from him.

Alex needed someone who totally appreciated him and wanted to do everything for him because he deserved it.

And Lance was a raging man whore.

“Dammit,” I muttered to myself as Lance reached for Alex’s hand.

That wasn’t right. Alex and Lance shouldn’t be looking at each other like that. They shouldn’t even be out on a Friday night.

This was taking him out to a fancy restaurant, buying him nice food, wooing him into thinking he was amazing before Lance took him back to his place and fucked him.

Well, back to our place.

And how did I know that? Because that’s exactly what I did when a girl was playing extra hard to get. One nice, slightly pricey meal and a night of flirting was a ticket to a good time.

I let my guard down, and Lance got his claws into Alex without me even looking. Alex was too innocent for a beast like Lance.

I didn’t move a single muscle as I watched them. It was when Alex brought his hands up to his mouth and Lance cupped his face exactly like he had when he’d been helping Alex with an ‘eyelash’ that I fully lost it. I was literally about to stand up to go in there and tear Lance’s hands off him when someone barked from my left.

“What the fuck are you doing?”

My eyes shot up to find Tommy standing over me, his arms folded, glaring like he always did.

My gaze flicked from him, over to Lance and Alex mooning over each other, then back to the scowly bastard in front of me.

“Did you know they were dating?” I asked instantly. I wasn’t going to mess around and try to casually weed information out of him like the king of subtly I was. It was easier to just give it to him straight.

“It’s none of my fucking business what they're doing,” he snapped. “None of their shit is. The only thing I care about is getting rid of the perv who’s freaking out my customers.”

I shifted my position, “Yeah, but don’t you know if—”

“No.” He pressed a palm out to stop me. “Either come inside and pay for some food or fuck off.”

“So, you knew…You knew they were dating?”

“It doesn’t fucking matter. What matters is that you stop whatever the hell you’re doing.”

My heart gave a funny little bump as I threw one more glance at them.

I really didn’t want to leave my spot, but I wasn’t about to spend $100 on a piece of meat smaller than my palm.

Lance scooped his spoon into the dish in front of him, and I froze, my lungs tight as it suddenly hovered in between him and Alex. I one hundred percent swear he was going to feed it to Alex. Alex was even opening his mouth, looking at Lance all fresh and sparkly—though that could have been the fairy lights lining the windows.

Tommy was even more silent than I was, which wasn’t hard considering I almost fell over and had to grab the bushes for support, earning me even harsher glares from the couple on the other side.

Tommy clicked his tongue as he watched them, his expression growing darker.

“I’ve got to get back to work,” he growled. “You better be gone the next time I come out here.” He didn’t even look at me as he took off.

I’d wanted to come and make sure Alex wasn’t being taken advantage of, and I guess I got my answer. Because I couldn’t trust Lance further than I could throw him—which I’d already done a few months ago, and it fucking hurt because he dragged me with him.

I should have stayed and protected Alex. Just full–on wedged myself between them. But Alex said he’d be back by ten, and I was sure Alex didn’t fuck on a first date.

Well, kinda sure, since he’d never been on one before.

It turned out Alex didn’t just have a terrible taste in shirts…

I’d go back to the house and wait it out. If I stopped them before they fucked, then my mission would be complete. I was just praying Lance hadn’t reserved a hotel room or something.

Alex would come back home and we’d lock ourselves in his room, have a laugh about it, and then, somehow, I’d find a way so he would never, ever see Lance again.