The Problem Client

by K P Maxwell

  Damien scowls at her, but scowling feels kind of good right now. Better than crying at least. She grins back at him, obviously pleased with the success of her tactic. He thinks he’s not ready for this, but Melanie’s not exactly the emotionally supportive type.

  “Another new person?” Damien asks, latching onto that one part of her statement, because he really doesn’t want to think about the rest of it. Melanie nods.

  “Yeah, I want to look for someone,” she says. “Ideally another pastry chef, to help Sebastian out. He and Jake –” she grimaces. “Well, you know how Sebastian is. I think it’s going to be difficult to find someone.”

  Damien nods. “That sounds fine,” he says, feeling better to have a goal. Something to move towards. “Just tell me what you need me to do, and I’ll do it.”

  Melanie gives him a considering look. “Well, tomorrow the café’s closed,” she says. “So I think you can just get settled, and then we’ll start as usual on Monday.” She shrugs.

  “Oh yeah,” she says, and she tosses him a key. He barely catches it, and looks at it curiously.

  “Studio,” Melanie says. “Third floor. We’ll keep your old room free, just in case.”

  Damien nods at this, privately grateful he’ll have some space to himself, and also just a different space, one that’s not tied so tightly with his old life and with Ty. He clutches the key tightly in his hand.

  “Have a good night,” Melanie says, obviously dismissing him. He picks up his duffle and makes his way out to the elevator bank.

  He’s thankful he doesn’t run into any of the other guys on his way up to the third floor. The studio’s set up much like his old room was, but there’s more space and actually a private kitchen area. He wonders if Melanie did anything in particular to set this one up, or if she just has studios on this floor that are already live-in ready. He drops his duffle bag on the floor and makes his way to a little alcove where the bed is located, and flops down onto it, face-first.

  He falls asleep immediately.

  In the morning, there’s a knock on the door of his apartment. Damien startles awake, unsure of where he’s at for a moment, before he realizes he’s back at the café in one of the studios on the third floor. He must have slept for over 10 hours, he thinks, amazed, but the whole situation has been completely exhausting.

  He’s still mostly dressed, so makes his way over to the door and opens it to find Kaz on the other side. Kaz is wearing his usual “day off” clothes of gym shorts and a baggy t-shirt, and he doesn’t make any comments about Damien’s clothes or his hair.

  “I want to show you something,” Kaz says instead, without any preamble, and he hitches his thumb behind him, gesturing to some of the other doors in the hallway. Damien follows along after him, still half-asleep before realizing that Kaz is taking Damien to another studio on the same floor.

  Damien knows Kaz still has a room on the second floor, so he’s immensely curious when Kaz stops at a specific door in the hallway, sticking a key into the deadbolt lock. It unlocks with a click, and Kaz opens the door, gesturing for Damien to go in first. Kaz looks nervous, Damien realizes, and he cautiously steps into the studio.

  The layout is nearly identical to his own studio’s layout, but otherwise the space is different in every conceivable way. The entire main room is covered in easels with canvases on them, some half-started, some finished. There’s drop-sheets covering every inch of carpet, some of them layered over each other, and paint splattered everywhere. Damien notices, there’s even drops of paint on some of the walls, and he wonders how Kaz managed that. Brushes, pallets, tubes of paint. Empty and full canvases stacked against one of the walls. Damien is totally floored.

  He glances back at Kaz, and Kaz gives him a crooked grin. He steps into the studio to stand next to Damien, door closing behind him.

  “She really cares, you know,” Kaz says, gesturing to the room. “I don’t know why you can’t see it, because you’ve been here longer than me.”

  Damien steps into the room, making his way towards the paintings. They’re mostly abstract art, he realizes, but some of them are of things in the cafe. There’s one of Liam, one of Daniel. A half-finished one of himself.

  “When did you do all of this?” Damien asks, and Kaz shakes his head.

  “I know you have some sort of hang up about being independent and shit,” Kaz says, ignoring the question. “But she’d help you do anything you wanted, if you just asked.”

  “This?” Damien says. “Melanie gave you this room?”

  Kaz nods. “Yeah, it’s my space, to do whatever I want with it.”

  “I don’t understand,” Damien says, shaking his head.

  Kaz turns back to him, frustrated.

  “Look,” Kaz says. “Melanie would do anything for you.” He waves a hand at Damien. “You’re, like, her favorite or something.”

  Damien shakes his head. “I’m pretty sure Liam’s her favorite,” he says, and Kaz just rolls his eyes at Damien.

  “Whatever, man. You know, you’ve basically been running this place. The café, at least.” Kaz says. “You know you could get licensed in this shit, like get a business degree. You’d be good at it.”

  Damien blinks at him. “A… business degree?” he asks.

  Kaz nods. “Yeah, she’d probably pay for you to take classes, if you asked her.” He crosses his arms at Damien. “Melanie hates this shit, you know? She’s been worried that you’d find a new job since you moved in with Ty.”

  Damien had never considered it. Never thought about Melanie’s perspective. He knows that he’s always actively enjoyed managing the café, and that Melanie really, really doesn’t. She’s obviously much happier running the other business, which is unfortunately very illegal and just needs the café as a cover. Damien frowns at the idea, and shakes his head.

  “I can’t just ask her for money like that,” he says, and Kaz laughs.

  “Dude, ask her for a promotion,” he says. “Or whatever will make you feel happy. I don’t get your hang-up. You don’t have to do everything by yourself you know?”

  Damien just stares at Kaz. It can’t be that easy, he thinks.

  Kaz slaps him on the shoulder. “Whatever, just think about it, okay? You don’t have to live here with us, but I’m sure Melanie would make that easier on you, too. Especially if you tell her you’re not planning on finding another job. All you have to do is ask.”

  It’s a lot to think about. Damien shakes his head again. “Thank you,” he says. “I just need… some time, I think.”

  Kaz looks understanding at that. “Sure,” he says. “Why don’t you make us some coffee, and you can hang out here with me while I work on this.” He’s pointing to the half-finished portrait of Damien. He grins. “I can have a live model and everything.”

  Damien laughs a little at that and finds a cheap coffee pot in the kitchen of the studio and some pre-ground beans in a small container. He starts the coffee, watching as Kaz gets his brushes and paints set up.

  So this is what Kaz spends all of his time doing, Damien thinks. He remembers, a while back, that Kaz mentioned being an artist, but he sort of forgot about it. He got caught up in all of his own drama with Ty.

  After the coffee’s done, he finds a mostly clean spot of the drop cloth to sit on. At least all of the paint is probably dry anyways. There’s a few chairs scattered around the room, too, but Damien wants to stretch his legs out a bit, and he sets the cup of coffee down next to him, as he watches Kaz work.

  He sips his coffee in silence for a while, enjoying the feeling of not worrying about what he has to do today.

  “So what happened, anyways?” Kaz asks finally, as he’s cleaning off a brush.

  Damien frowns. It’s not that something specific happened really. He shakes his head, even though Kaz isn’t paying attention to him.

  “Ty’s just never around,” he says. “And he was starting to get weirdly jealous of you, when I’d stay late working here,” Damien trails off. Ka
z gives him an odd look.

  “The wolf jealous of me?” he asks. He laughs a little to himself at that.

  “You’re cute and all, but you’re too high maintenance,” Kaz says, as he goes back to the painting. Damien nearly spits out his coffee.

  “Am not,” he mutters, but he thinks Kaz is probably right.

  “Has he…” Kaz trails off. He looks over to Damien, tilting his head, and then shaking it. “Nah, nevermind. I hope you guys figure it out,” he says, sincerely.

  Damien stares at his coffee so he doesn’t have to look at Kaz directly. “Thanks,” he says. He honestly hopes so, too. It’s only been a night, less than twenty-four hours, and he feels oddly broken, like a piece of himself is missing.

  He ends up staying in the studio with Kaz for most of the morning, just watching him paint, until he finally gets too hungry to delay going down to the café any longer.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Damien has already been back at the café for two weeks when he decides to text Eli. He misses Ty. He hasn’t heard anything from the other man since that awful night after months of having Ty as the central focus of his life. Ty’s been giving him space, but it’s too much. Damien’s not sure what he expected, and he’s not sure if he should reach out first. He feels antsy about it, like he’s pacing in a cage of his own making.

  He enjoys being back at the café, though. Life flows on around him as it always has there, and he falls back into an easy rhythm with the other hosts. No one mentions Ty or the fact that Damien had moved out. His head already feels a lot clearer now that he’s had some time to think. He wants…

  Well, he just wants things to work between them, but he’s not ready to message Ty about it. He doesn’t even know what he would say. He’s helping Liam work the espresso bar, but there aren’t any customers currently, so he pulls his phone out of his pocket, staring at the messaging app. He taps the screen uncertainly, hovering over Ty’s name before deciding against it. He texts Eli instead.

  How’s he doing?

  He doesn’t expect an immediate reply, so he has already put his phone back in his pocket when it buzzes to indicate a new message. He pulls it out again, and Liam looks over at him curiously. Damien shrugs to the barista and looks down at the notification on the screen.

  ????

  Damien’s confused at the response. How’s Ty doing? he types and presses send, but he’s unsure who else Eli could think he means.

  Damien nearly drops his phone when it immediately starts vibrating in his hand, showing Eli’s number coming through as a phone call. He steps out of the espresso bar area and into the hallway that leads to the kitchen just in case a customer comes in, and then he accepts the call.

  “Hello?” he asks, curiously.

  “Can’t talk long,” Eli says, and he sounds oddly out of breath. “But what do you mean how’s Ty doing? Aren’t you living with him now?”

  “Uh, no,” Damien says, still completely confused over this whole thing. “I moved out.”

  “What the f–” Eli cuts himself off, “Sorry,” he says, but it sounds like he’s talking to someone else. There’s a lot of background noise where Eli’s at. “Gotta go, Damien. But I did not know about that. I will talk to that – I will talk to Ty personally and find out exactly how he is doing.”

  Eli hangs up, and Damien almost laughs at the absurdity of it. He stares down at the phone in his hand. So Damien moved out, and Ty… what? Ty just didn’t tell anyone about it?

  Damien’s not exactly sure what that means, but he wishes he could be there when Eli has whatever discussion he’s planning on having with the other man. He can’t imagine that will go well. He heads back to the counter at the front of the café, wondering what on earth Ty could be thinking.

  Ty has been putting Eli off for two weeks on their usual gym time, so when Eli texts him about it today, he finally drags himself down to the 24/7 gym near his condo to meet the other man. He should have known that it was a trap.

  “You’re an absolute idiot,” Eli says, right off the bat, and Ty realizes that Damien must have talked to the other man. Eli’s not even wearing gym clothes, and Ty feels a little betrayed. “How long did you think you would be able to hide this from me?”

  Ty feels every defense he had up completely shatter. He feels drained. He shakes his head, and he must look terrible because Eli says, “No way, we are not working out today. We are going to go somewhere, and we are going to talk about this.”

  Ty just nods, feeling utterly miserable.

  Damien left him. It’s all he’s been able to think about. His wolf is practically in mourning. He follows through the motions of his day in a mechanical way, step by step, just as he always had, not deviating from his routine. And nearly every thought that he has is tinged with the regret. It was his own damn fault.

  It’s early afternoon, and Eli drives him back to his place. Eli lives close to the hospital that he works at, and his building is not quite as high-end as Ty’s but the furnishings inside Eli’s condo are just as gorgeous. Ty is struck by the realization that their places look nearly the same. Not lived-in. He frowns. He’s still in his gym clothes and kicks off his shoes at the door, setting his gym bag next to them.

  “So what did you do?” Eli asks, eyebrow raised. Ty sighs, and rubs the back of his head.

  “I don’t know,” Ty says, and it’s not even close to the truth. Eli snorts, and starts making coffee for them, without even asking Ty whether or not he wants any. Ty throws himself down on Eli’s couch, elbows on his knees, pressing his head into his hands. After a few moments, he leans back again, watching Eli grab the coffee beans out of a cabinet. Eli’s never going to leave him alone about this, he thinks.

  “Okay, okay,” Ty says, breaking the silence. “I may have sort of implied that he slept with one of his coworkers.”

  Eli turns around to just stare at Ty, still holding the bag of coffee beans in his hand. “You did what?” He asks.

  “I mean, he technically did. But it was before he even knew my name,” Ty continues. “And then I may have thrown myself into work and basically ignored him the rest of the week…”

  Eli sets the coffee bag down carefully. “I’m seriously going to beat the shit of you, man. What’s wrong with you?”

  Ty shakes his head again. “I don’t know,” he says. “I just get all messed up when it comes to him. It’s like I want to lock him away and never let him out.”

  Eli eyes him skeptically. “You know, that’s incredibly illegal.”

  Ty snorts a laugh. “I wouldn’t do it,” he says, but the idea is appealing. As if Damien would tolerate that sort of thing. He finds himself smiling at the idea, as terrible as it is.

  Eli starts the coffee grinder, and Ty lets the noise drown out his thoughts for a moment. When Eli’s done, he’s looking at Ty again.

  “You apologized right?” Eli asks, and Ty nods.

  “Yeah,” he says. “But he left anyways.”

  Eli shrugs, “It sounds like you deserved it, man. You’re going to have to apologize harder.”

  Ty looks at him, “Yeah?” he says. “Keep trying?”

  “Of course!” Eli says. “He’s the one for you right?”

  Ty nods, confirming Eli’s suspicions. “Yeah,” Ty says, voice gruff. “I honestly never believed in all that stuff before, but… yeah, he is.”

  “And you haven’t even told him, have you?” Eli asks, and Ty shakes his head.

  “Didn’t want to make him think he didn’t have a choice in it,” Ty mutters.

  “Let me repeat,” Eli says, enunciating very clearly. “You are an absolute idiot.”

  Ty laughs a little at that. “I guess I deserve that.”

  Eli shakes his head in disgust at Ty, and Ty can’t blame him. Because Eli’s totally right on the money. Damien is the one for Ty.

  His mate.

  It might as well be some sort of shifter fairy tale. A happily ever after type of story parents tell their kids. If you’r
e really, really lucky, one day you might find your mate and live happily ever after with them. Plenty of people don’t, though, or just flat-out don’t have them. It’s hard to say what the odds are. Ty’s parents are a mated pair, and Eli’s parents are as well, but Ty never thought that sort of thing would happen for him. He’s never been the commitment kind of guy. The wolf has never been interested in any of the other men he’s fucked in the past.

  But Damien. The wolf perked up immediately when Ty met Damien all those months ago, and Ty knew, at that moment, that he was properly screwed.

  Because even if a wolf finds a mate, if the mate is a human, there’s no guarantee the human will even reciprocate.

  The whole thing’s a mess really, and Ty never wanted to put that sort of pressure on Damien, never wanted to bring him into the shifter drama bullshit that he has to put up with. He frowns to himself and then looks up as Eli brings over a hot cup of coffee.

  “Here,” Eli says, and Ty accepts it gratefully.

  “You have to tell him,” Eli says after a moment.

  “I don’t,” Ty says. “I really, really don’t.”

  Eli just stares at him. “If you don’t, Tyler Balducci, then you are seriously more of an idiot than I thought.”

  “What good will it do?” Ty says. “It’s no excuse. Not for how I’ve been treating him.”

  Eli looks thoughtful at that and shrugs. “It is and it isn’t,” he says. “The wolf’s making you crazy because you won’t recognize your mate. You need to apologize and explain.”

  Ty frowns down at his coffee.

  “You need to give him the choice,” Eli says.

  Ty sighs. “I’ll think about it,” he says. He sets the coffee down on Eli’s coffee table.

  “Can I crash here for a bit?” he asks, gesturing to Eli’s guest room. “Haven’t been sleeping well,” he admits.

  Eli nods. “Have at it,” he says. He shakes his head at Ty again, and Ty leaves his cup of coffee on the table.

  Ty finds himself sitting on the bed in the guest bedroom, staring at a blank wall as if he wishes a door would appear there. He shakes his head, snapping out of it when he realizes what he’s doing. Maybe Eli’s right. Maybe Ty needs to give Damien the full explanation. At the very least, Ty could apologize more. Ty could try harder. Rearrange some of his business dealings. What does it matter, in the end, if he has to give that up for Damien? What wouldn’t he give up for Damien?