AS LUCKwould have it, their first road trip after Thanksgiving put them in Vegas. Before he and Nate started dating for real, Aubrey had emailed a real estate agent just to take a look around. Whether he took the job or not—whether the show was renewed or not—his contract was up after playoffs, and it might not be renewed. He was keeping his options open.
He was supposed to swing by the Cirque office, maybe take a tour of their facility if he had time.
The problem was how to fit all that into one day without Nate noticing. Not because Aubrey didn’t want him to know, but because he felt like he should have told him already, even though he hadn’t auditioned. Even though he didn’t plan to leave unless the worst happened. Somehow it felt like if he mentioned it, it would be a vote of no confidence on both the show and their relationship.
So keeping it secret from Nate was a problem… or it would have been a problem, except Nate ate the chicken cacciatore on the red-eye they took late Friday night.
To avoid scrutiny, they’d agreed not to stay in each other’s rooms on business trips, especially since it had come out in an interview with a local magazine that they’d shared in Winnipeg. So Aubrey didn’t find out Nate was sick until the next morning. He woke up to a text message—Food poisoning.Feel like im dying.
God, poor Nate. Aubrey was resolved to be a good boyfriend, but he wasn’t sure exactly what that meant. Should he go hold his hair back, metaphorically speaking? But Aubrey wouldn’t want anyone to see him heave his breakfast into a toilet bowl,especiallynot Nate.
What if Nate needed help gettingtothe toilet bowl, though? That was the least sexy thought Aubrey had ever had about Nate, but he wasn’t going to let him suffer. Boyfriends sucked it up and offered their services in situations like this. That was what love was for. Right?
Aubrey was kind of hoping not, but to be sure, he walked down the hall to Nate’s door and knocked. He could cancel his apartment showings. “Nate?” he called. “You need anything?”
It took a moment, but eventually Nate opened the door. His face was ashen, sallow, and damp with sweat. Aubrey fought the urge to take a step back. He smelled like stale sweat and vomit. “Front desk is sending up some meds.”
They had a call in six hours. “Are you going to—”
He never got to finish the sentence. Nate ran to the bathroom. He didn’t even have time to close the door; Aubrey could hear him retching from the hallway.
“I’ll tell Jess to send Kelly in your place? We can do a teleconference for the intermission interviews.”
Nate retched again, and Aubrey’s stomach rebelled. What a time to find out he’d turned into a sympathetic vomiter. “Thanks,” Nate said weakly a moment later.
“I’m, uh, I’m going to go,” Aubrey said. “Text me if you need anything, okay?”
Nate didn’t answer verbally, but he stuck his arm out the bathroom door and gave a thumbs-up.
Aubrey fled and carefully closed the door behind him.
Then he set out house-hunting, even though he was only looking semi-seriously. He stood in the center of the living room of the first apartment. It was furnished, on a fashionably high floor, with huge tinted windows with blackout curtains. It might as well be his apartment in Chicago. The layout was almost the same—one huge bedroom, open floor plan, big bathroom. This one had laundry service instead of an in-suite setup. There was a pool on the roof and a gym on the main floor.
It was very much the sort of bachelor pad Aubrey had always sought out and lived in, and it felt completely wrong.
He gave Sarah, the agent, his best tough-customer smile. “What else have you got?”
The second apartment was better, with a living room that spanned two full stories, a huge private balcony, and enough kitchen counter space to prepare two turkey dinners simultaneously. The walk-in closet with built-in drawers and shelving was big enough to host an orgy.
He hated it… except the closet.
By the time Sarah was showing him the third executive-style apartment, he’d figured out the trend. He could see himself living in these apartments just fine. There was nothing wrong with them.
He couldn’t see himself living in any of themwith Nate.
It didn’t even make sense! Nate lived in an apartment very similar to Aubrey’s. It should have been easy to superimpose him on any one of these places, to imagine him there with Aubrey as he often was with Aubrey at his actual apartment. But the apartments they lived in now—those were alreadyhomes. Aubrey couldn’t say why it was different, but it was.
The next property, on the other hand….
“I know you’re not looking for something with maintenance,” Sarah explained as she unlocked the door to let him in, “so I want to assure you that this is a condo. Everything’s taken care of in the monthly fees.”
“I’ll keep an open mind,” Aubrey promised.
“It’s also rented through the end of the week. We have permission from the residents to show it; they went to a movie. But the point is it’s not quite as tidy as an unoccupied home.”
“Nor should it be.” In truth he liked the way the place looked lived-in. The kitchen was bright and airy, with appliances along the left wall in front of quadruple patio doors and a huge island separating it from an open dining area and living room. There were two glasses in the kitchen sink.
“Master bedroom is this way,” Sarah said, gesturing to the right.
