Through Thick and Thin

by J. P. Oliver

  It was time for that to end.

  As if to punctuate this whole idea, Tom texted him and asked if picking him up at six o’clock was okay. Lance said sure, and then texted the guys for the poker game, asking them to come at six fifteen and to let themselves in. He told them that food would be set out, and that Lance himself was going to be out but not to worry.

  It took him forever to figure out what to wear. Tom had told him they were going to a restaurant, but Lance had no idea what kind of restaurant. It could be the steakhouse that had been open for so long that everyone’s parents had gone there for date night, or it could be the new Italian place that had opened up a few blocks down.

  Ah, the problems of being a tech guy who worked from home. Lance didn’t exactly have a lot of outfits to choose from.

  Damn, he hadn’t been on a date in years. Normally this was the part where he’d ask Travis for advice. He’d wonder what tie went with the jacket, and ask if the colors complemented his eyes, made them pop more instead of looking like watery sludge.

  No. This was about being independent from Travis. This was about moving on. He could pick out a goddamn outfit.

  When he got a knock at the door at five ‘til six, Lance nearly jumped out of his skin. When he opened it though, Luke was standing there, beers in hand.

  “Hey?” Lance said, questioningly as he opened the door further for Luke to enter. “I thought I said six fifteen.”

  “You did,” Luke replied. “I just wanted to stop by a little early and see if you needed any help setting up.” He saw what Lance was wearing and stopped. “Is that a dress shirt?”

  “Yup. Mind helping me with this tie?”

  “What, got a fancy date or something?” Luke asked, helping Lance out with the tie. “You’re lucky Adam has to wear a suit to work every morning. I used to suck at these.”

  “Oh no, your boyfriend wears tailored suits and waistcoats, however do you survive,” Lance replied. “And yes, as a matter of fact, I do.”

  Luke paused. “Wait. You what?”

  “I have a fancy date.” Lance paused. “I think it’s fancy...but it’s definitely a date. This tie goes with the jacket, right?”

  “Um, yes, it does—wait.” Luke shook his head like he was trying to shake water out of his ears. “You’re going on a date?”

  “Yes.”

  “With who?”

  “Tom. The new fire chief.”

  “Wait, wait, wait, what?” Luke looked like he had inadvertently stepped into a parallel universe. Lance was pretty sure that it was physically impossible for Luke’s eyebrows to get any higher. “Why?”

  “Because Matthew put up that stupid sign about my being the town’s most eligible bachelor, and Tom saw it, and when he ran into me at the grocery store he asked if the sign was true, and I said that the bachelor part was, so he asked me out, and I said yes.” This was not rocket science.

  “But…” Luke made some kind of vague gesture, like he was trying to speak in sign language without actually knowing any sign language. “You and Travis…”

  A rush of cold, like a block of ice, ran down Lance’s spine. “Me and Travis what?”

  Luke cleared his throat. “Travis, uh, was shooting the shit with me for a while earlier. He had a lot of hickeys. He said that, uh, you gave them to him.”

  Lance was going to strangle Travis to death with his bare hands when he next saw him. “Oh, he did, did he?”

  Luke frowned. “Did something go wrong? Because I gotta say, he sounded…”

  “Angry? Proud?”

  “Lost,” Luke corrected. “He sounded completely lost.”

  “That’s not my problem,” Lance said.

  There was another knock at the door. That had to be Tom. “Look, I don’t have time for this, or whatever other bullshit Travis is putting me through, again. I have a lovely date I’m looking forward to. Just let the other guys in when they get here. All the food’s laid out, and have fun. Just make sure that Travis cleans up afterwards, okay?”

  “Yeah, sure,” Luke said faintly. He sounded like he was scrambling to put various puzzle pieces together while a timer was counting down. “Uh, have fun, I guess.”

  “Gee, thanks Luke,” Lance said. He opened the door to find Tom standing there.

  To Lance’s relief, Tom was also wearing a button-down shirt with a jacket and a tie. Tom looked him up and down, smiling in appreciation. “You look good.”

  “Thanks.” Sure, Tom’s smile wasn’t making his insides melt the way that Travis’s smile did, but it was a sweet smile. Maybe it would grow on him over the course of the evening. “Remember what I said, Luke, I want this place cleaned up when I get home.”

  “Sure thing,” Luke said. He looked more in place now, like he’d found his bearings. He also looked oddly determined. “Have fun!”

  “Thanks.”

  As he closed the door behind him, he had a moment to wonder—what the hell did Luke have to be looking so goddamn determined about?

  14

  “I don’t know what you did,” Luke said, “but you are gonna fix it, and you’re gonna fix it tonight.”

  Travis paused, one foot in the doorway to Lance’s apartment, staring at the very frustrated and determined Luke Markum standing in his way with his arms folded. “Um, hey there, Luke, what’s up?”

  “What’s up?” Luke rolled his eyes. “I’ll tell you what’s up. You show up at my place looking like a kicked puppy. You talk about nothing but sports until I point out your hickeys, at which point you tell me they’re from Lance. Then I get here for poker and find out that Lance is going out on a date with a guy he doesn’t even know!”

  Luke pointed a finger at Travis, almost poking him in the chest. “You tell me what you did, and you tell me now.”

  “Can you at least let me inside the apartment?” Travis asked. He really didn’t want to have this conversation where Lance’s neighbors might be able to hear them.

  Luke stepped back and gestured for Travis to come inside.

  Matthew, Jake, and Hank, one of Luke’s new cooks for the bar, were all already sitting at the table. Jake was dealing out cards while explaining things to Hank. Matthew was watching Luke and Travis, an amused smile on his face.

  Travis growled at him. “You wipe that smirk off before I make you.”

  “Hey,” Jake said. “I told you, next time you threaten to fight my boyfriend, I run you over with a car.”

  “And again, I ask, how are you going to manage that?”

  “I’ll use a client car. They’ll never be able to trace it back to me.”

  “He runs an auto shop,” Matthew said to Hank, who looked very confused. Matthew then smiled at Jake. “As always, sweetheart, your enthusiasm to fight for my honor is appreciated, but unnecessary.”

  “What the hell did you put up that sign for?” Travis asked.

  “I put it up so that Lance would finally get an actual honest-to-God date the way he deserves,” Matthew drawled. “Seems it worked, too, seeing as he’s out on a date right now.”

  “With Tom,” Jake added, for Hank’s benefit. “The new fire chief.”

  “Oh, yeah, I saw him,” Hank said. “Gorgeous.”

  Jake nodded. “I know, right. If I wasn’t already taken…”

  Matthew must have had a hand on Jake’s thigh or something underneath the table because Matthew’s expression didn’t change, but Jake suddenly yelped. “You were saying something, sweetheart?”

  “I was saying that my boyfriend is a sadist,” Jake hissed, blushing furiously.

  “Point is,” Matthew said, turning to look back at Travis, “I don’t see what you’ve got to be complaining about. I know you’ve got a protective streak a mile wide, but c’mon, all of us could see that Lance needed somebody to appreciate him. Marking him as the most eligible bachelor suggests actual dates to people, instead of hook ups, so he’s free from the kind of guys like you who’ll just waltz in and waltz out.”

  “You say that like yo
u weren’t one of those guys previously,” Travis said. Anger was still burning hot in his gut, but he could sense that the room was against him in this.

  “And when I genuinely wanted to date Jake, I wooed him with cupcakes,” Matthew replied.

  “Smart,” Hank said. Matthew winked at him.

  “This is all distracting us from the point,” Luke said. “What did you do?”

  “I didn’t do anything!” Travis said. “He accepted the date while he was out at the grocery store last night, and he told me this morning.”

  He stalked over to the table and sat down, indicating for Jake to deal him in. Jake did so, looking a little nervously around the room. Matthew, Luke, and Travis all had high tempers that were easy to provoke if you knew the right buttons to push. Hank was a relatively unknown entity. They all knew and liked him well enough to start inviting him to poker nights, but Hank wasn’t close enough to any of them to take sides in this.

  That meant it was up to Jake to play peacekeeper if things went to shit, a role that Jake was definitely not used to playing.

  Travis rolled his eyes when he saw that everyone was staring at him. Luke hadn’t even sat down. “Look, could we just play? Please?”

  “Are those hickeys?” Jake said, pausing in dealing.

  “Yes,” Travis said. “This should not be news to you.” He’d shown up with hickeys before.

  “Yeah, but—holy shit, it must have been intense.” Jake looked impressed.

  “Ask who gave them to him,” Luke said, finally sitting down and taking the cards that Jake handed him.

  “I feel like I’ve been set up,” Travis said.

  “I’ll take two,” Hank said to Jake, actually paying attention to the game.

  “Wait, who gave them to you?” Matthew asked. “That guy at the bar last night? What’s his name…”

  “Eric, he stops by sometimes. He was two grades behind us,” Jake explained, passing Hank his cards.

  “No, no, he left without Eric,” Luke said. He seemed happy to lead the horse to water and let it figure out how to drink, so to speak.

  Travis glared at him. Luke raised his eyebrows and gave him a what are you going to do about it face. “For the love of God, could we please just play? I don’t see what the big deal is.”

  Matthew looked at Luke to see Luke all but glaring at Travis as if to say exactly what the big deal was.

  Luke shrugged, and handed Jake a card to trade. “I’m just saying, you did something to piss Lance off. He was not himself when he left for his date.”

  “He seemed pretty cheerful to me,” Hank said. “I showed up right as they were getting into the car.”

  “You don’t know Lance,” Luke replied.

  “He has a hot date,” Travis replied, probably more viciously than he needed to. “So what?”

  The irony of Lance, out of the two of them, being the one who was callous and going out with someone else and not even talking to Travis about it or last night, was not lost on Travis.

  “It is kind of out of the ordinary,” Jake acknowledged. “This was the fire chief, right? This isn’t someone that Lance has known for very long. He usually takes a lot of time to warm up to someone.”

  “Yeah,” Luke said. He was staring right at Travis. “It’s almost like something pushed him into doing it, like he was trying to prove a point.”

  Hank looked like he had just realized that the atmosphere around him was awkward and kind of wanted to sink into the floor.

  Matthew got that eager light in his eyes like he wanted to pry, but Jake glared at him, and Matthew sank back into his chair.

  “Well, if he had a point, he could have talked to the person about it,” Travis replied.

  “Gee, because that person sure is good with talking about things,” Luke said. “He came over to my house today and talked about sports for two hours.”

  “Oh my God,” Matthew blurted out. “Lance gave you those hickeys?”

  “Wait, is Lance the light brunet who’s always on his phone or the short blond?” Hank asked.

  “Short blond, quiet, was kind of a twink in college,” Jake answered.

  Travis kicked him.

  Luke leveled a glare at him and Travis sighed. “Okay, yes, we slept together. Happy?”

  “How,” Jake said. “How. Details. Now.”

  “That’s not the point,” Luke said.

  “Hang on, no, I want details,” Matthew said, leaning forward and ready for gossip.

  “No, the point is that you two slept together after how long of dancing around this, and then you flee to my front porch all day and he goes on a date with another guy,” Luke said.

  “He had already agreed to the date,” Travis said. “I’ll take three cards, Jake.”

  “Lance could have cancelled.”

  Travis really, really wanted Luke to drop it, but he was starting to figure out that Luke had probably brought this up when they were in a group since, with Matthew and Jake there, none of the three of them would let Travis change the subject. “But he didn’t. He wanted to go on the date.”

  “You sure about that?” Luke asked.

  “Pretty damn sure,” Travis said.

  “So should I fold, or…?” Hank asked.

  “Call,” Jake said, the only one who was paying any attention to the game besides Travis, who just was desperate for a distraction.

  “Raise.” Matthew looked at his cards. “No, shit, wait, I’m folding. So is that where you went after you ditched Eric?”

  “Guys. Seriously, it doesn’t matter,” Travis insisted. “We slept together, and he didn’t say anything about it the next morning. In fact the first thing he did was tell me about his date tonight. I don’t see what else there is to talk about.”

  Matthew and Jake exchanged one of those looks, where they managed to have an entire conversation in two seconds of eye contact. Luke sighed.

  “Sounds to me like he was looking for you to bring it up,” Hank said, putting some chips down. “I mean, I don’t know any of you guys too well yet, but I’ve heard about your reputation. Luke here warned me not to let you flirt with me, said he didn’t want to lose a good cook just because you’d broken my heart. If he’d already said yes to the date before you slept with him, that just sounds to me like Lance was waiting for you to protest, say that you wanted the two of you to be official and to not go on the date.”

  “Why didn’t he just say that then?” Travis asked.

  “Pride?” Jake suggested.

  “That’s you, hon,” Matthew said.

  “More like fear,” Luke said. “If we’re talking about Lance. C’mon, Travis, you’re friends with him for how long? And you just came home and slept with him? You can’t blame the guy for wanting to test the waters a little and see if you were serious...and you just fled. That had to have been confirmation for him.”

  “What the hell am I supposed to do, then?” Travis said. “That was a dick move, not just asking me.”

  “If you didn’t really care, then it would have made things awkward,” Luke said. “This way, at least in his mind, he got to preserve any dignity he had and your friendship by being a bit more roundabout.”

  “Well that’s fucking ridiculous,” Travis said. “I would’ve told him.”

  “Told him what?” Matthew prodded.

  “That—you know…” Travis gestured vaguely.

  “This. This is what I’m talking about,” Luke said. “You know Adam and I wasted months because neither of us was willing to talk about our feelings and just nursed our wounds? C’mon, man. When he gets home, just actually say what you’re feeling for once.”

  “Easy for you to say,” Travis said. “You’re not the one who’s dealing with it. And you slept with the lawyer who was helping prosecute you, so forgive me if I’m not thinking you’re the best judge of what to do here.”

  “That was a low blow,” Jake said.

  Luke flipped Travis off. “Just for that, I’m charging you double for drinks fo
r a week.”

  “Okay, okay, fine.” Travis sighed. “I will tell him exactly what I think and feel when he gets back, now are you all happy? Can we actually play poker now and get shitfaced?”

  “Maybe not that last part,” Matthew said, “if you’re going to be having a heart to heart.”

  “Just. Can we. Play,” Travis growled.

  Everyone put their hands up in placating gestures and started to finally focus on the game.

  Travis couldn’t get everyone’s words out of his head, though—especially Hank’s, ironically, given that he knew Hank the least. If even a complete stranger had been warned off of Travis and knew about his reputation…

  Was he really going to be able to give Lance what he needed? He’d been so certain this morning. The way Luke put it though, Lance had no reason to trust Travis. He’d been testing the waters, not even willing to just come right out and ask Travis if they were together now.

  Had he really given Lance such a low opinion not only of Travis himself, but of how he viewed their friendship? Did Lance really think that Travis would just sleep with him and then just count it as another notch on his belt and move on?

  It was… disconcerting, to say the least, to think that his closest friend was scared to just come right out and talk to him about something like this. He’d thought that he’d made his interest pretty explicit the night before. He’d said that he had tried to pick someone else up and that he couldn’t, that he just wanted Lance. Had that not been enough?

  It probably wasn’t enough. Lance probably wanted someone like Tom, someone who would take him out to a restaurant. Travis had always thought that Lance wouldn’t want something public like that, but maybe just the fact that someone was willing to put in such an effort was enough to override any other complaints. Maybe Travis should have seen this coming.

  “Call,” Jake said, and Travis realized that it was his turn.