Page 12 of Crying in the Rain
It prompted Ade to check what time it was. “No way!” He couldn’t believe they’d been chatting for so long. Well, he’d done all the chatting.
Kris tucked his folder under his arm and smiled apologetically. “Sorry to abandon you, especially as I hassled you into coming in the first place.”
“Don’t worry about it. I need to head home soon too. And anyway, you didn’t hassle me.”
Kris didn’t look so sure about that.
“I’ve enjoyed it,” Ade said sincerely.
“Yeah. It’s been so good getting to know you.” Kris held out his hand, Ade reached out to shake it, and the moment they made contact, everything changed.
It was different from their handshake earlier in the day, as if the physical connection somehow cemented what had been building between them, and now they couldn’t release each other.
It was, eventually, Kris who broke free first, mumbled something about Ade having a pleasant rest of evening and left. Dumbfounded, Ade watched him walk out the door and pause to fasten his jacket. Kris glanced back, locking gazes with Ade. Then he smiled, waved and was gone.
The sound of glasses being set down on the bar snapped Ade back to reality.
“You did order this beer, right?” the bartender asked.
“Yeah. He had to go for his train.” Ade checked the time again, admonishing himself for not keeping track. Quarter past ten was too late to convincingly claim he’d only just finished work, too early to have any chance of sneaking in undetected.And why should I have to? You know what? Screw it.He paid for both drinks and knocked back Kris’s beer while the bartender was getting his change.
Kristian Johansson, what did you do to me?He examined his hand and clasped it with his other, re-imagining the sensation of the soft palm that had warmed his, the lightest squeeze of his fingers. Everything about it had been gentle, unthreatening, but there was another power at work, and it had awakened Ade’s long-dormant response to consensual physical contact. That one simple handshake had thrown his world completely off its axis.
6: Crush
Ade
Tommy: You startled me.
Rose: Shh. He’s asleep downstairs. How are you feeling?
Tommy: Fine.
Rose: You don’t look fine.
Tommy: Well, I am. Perfectly fine.
Rose: When I think of how you used to look, with your wild hair, and your bright clothes… When did you stop wearing the designer blazers? They were so you.
Tommy: When I turned twenty-five. They made me look like a kids’ TV presenter.
Rose: When you met him. And what have you got to show for it apart from broken bones and bruises?
Tommy: I was unlucky.
Rose: Maybe… Don’t do that. Don’t touch me, Tommy. We mustn’t. I thought you loved me.
Tommy: Why do you think I’m doing this?
Ade woke ina sweat, shaken up by the dream. He threw off the duvet and turned on his side, so tired, yet every time he neared sleep, his brain fired up again, searching for meaning. And then he was too cold. He gave up and stumbled away to the showereven though it was, once again, only five in the morning. More galling still, he was missing out on having the bed all to himself.
Under the soothing jets, he closed his eyes and replayed the day before, getting straight in his mind what was real and what wasn’t. The play. That had happened. Kris. Drinks after work. Also real. And Kris had noticed the bruises—pointed them out, in fact—but hadn’t mentioned them again or so much as looked at them, not in any way that was obvious. Sadly, as the suddenly soaring pain reminded Ade when he washed his face, the bruises were all too real.
The attraction was real too, at least on Ade’s part, and it did seem at the pub that Kris was interested, not to mention whatever it was that happened when they touched. But…could he trust his instincts? If his life wasn’t so difficult right now, he’d have considered Kris viable dating material from the moment he set eyes on him, but there was no escaping the truth that he was in this situation because his instincts had failed him before.
I thought you loved me.
Why do you think I’m doing this?
