“Alex, stop being a bitch.” Neal yawns and stretches out. He wipes his eyes and sighs lightly- no way he’s getting any sleep now. “You know as well as I do that that’s just how he is. Of course he’s happy. I’m sure this is just a surprise for him, for everyone, and so it seems like he’s not happy.”
“Well, maybe he needs to start thinking more before he speaks. Maybe he needs to start thinking more in general.”
“Alex, seriously- let it go.” Neal looks back over his shoulder at Alex. “He just got to be world champion- it’s the biggest thing he’s ever got in his career and he’s allowed to want people to talk about that for some time. He should want that. Then here we come with this huge news and no one is talking about anything else. He’ll get used to the idea and be okay with it all. Not everyone will be so nice about it eventually. Those are the people you should be worried about- not people who are really our friends.”
Desmond glances over at Neal and raises an eyebrow before turning his attention back to the road.
“What?” Neal frowns slightly at Desmond.
“You seem so…”
“What? Stupid?”
“No- sensible. It’s… different.”
Neal narrows his gaze slightly.
“I think you were mean again there- you need to stop doing that.”
“Sorry.”
Neal rolls his eyes before turning his head to look at Alex.
“Well? Are you going to stop being mean to him?”
“Why should I?” Alex folds his arms across his chest and sticks his bottom lip out slightly. “He’s never nice to me.”
“Because you never gave him a chance. Did you ever think about that?”
Alex opens his mouth to reply, but Neal doesn’t give him the chance.
“I don’t say you have to like him, but you have to be civil because he will be around sometimes because George is Desmond’s best friend. You have to get used to the idea.”
Alex grumbles for a moment.
“Besides, it’s not like we love all the people you know either.”
“Hey.” Alex scowls. “I have amazing friends, thank you very much.”
“Not all of them.”
“Can we please not argue, right now?” Desmond glances quickly between Neal and Alex. “It’s been a hard enough day as it is.”
“Fine.” Alex huffs. “We’ll talk about this another time.”
***
“So, seriously, which of my friends do you not like?”
“Alex.” Desmond gives Alex a serious look. “You should let it go.”
“All right, then we’ll talk about why you hate me.”
Desmond rolls his eyes.
“I don’t hate you.” Desmond takes hold of Alex’s hand. “I swear.”
“Then why else would you say I’m always being the victim?”
Desmond looks down and blushes slightly.
“I didn’t mean to be so…”
“But you did mean what you said, didn’t you? That’s really how you see me?”
“No.” Desmond looks up at Alex and shakes his head. “I…” He sighs heavily. “I love you, I really do, but sometimes I think…”
“What?” Alex shifts closer to Desmond. “Because we need to be honest with each other, all of us. We all have to be able to tell each other everything and be okay with each other- we can’t, shouldn’t, bring these babies into the world if we’re not all okay.”
Desmond nods slowly. He’s quiet for a minute before speaking.
“I just think that sometimes you… It feels like you don’t always… I think you want everything to be your own way and if you don’t get that then you shut yourself off or something. Sometimes, I don’t think you understand compromise. I’m not saying that you have to change everything or give in all the time, but sometimes it feels like Neal and I are always the ones giving in to you. It feels like you’re always the one with all of the control and it’s not fair and I hate it.”
Alex frowns at Desmond for a minute.
“You really think that? Because I didn’t move to a whole different country for you or risk people disowning me to be with you or…”
“I didn’t mean it was all the time and I didn’t mean you do it on purpose- I know you wouldn’t do that- but, yeah, sometimes that’s how I feel.”
“You’re not perfect either, you know?”
“I’m not saying that I am. I’m sure there are things you need from me that maybe you’re not getting already. We should work them out- I don’t want to lose you. We owe it to ourselves to work everything out and be as happy as we can before the babies get here.”
Alex nods. He leans against Desmond.
Desmond wraps an arm around Alex’s shoulders and presses a kiss to the top of Alex’s head.
“I’m sorry I didn’t say anything before now, but I didn’t want to make things complicated or difficult- we need things to be easy right now. It’s no good for any of us to get stressed out.”
“I suppose that makes sense,” Alex mutters. “Just don’t ever do it again, okay? From now on, you need to tell us everything.”
“I promise.” Desmond smiles softly.
“I don’t think I’m surprised you finally snapped today- it was one of the hardest days ever and Boris and Rehan definitely weren’t helping, with the sniping and everything, but that’s how they are with each other and I think it’s important that they’re there.”
“Yeah, we need all the help we can get and I know they’ll be there, even if they can’t get along.”
“I think they might be willing to try now, after you yelled at them.”
“Wanna know a secret?”
Alex glances at Desmond.
“Sure.”
“I’ve been wanting to yell at them both for years.”
Alex laughs and shifts to a more comfortable position against Desmond.
“So now you feel better, yes?”
“Yeah.” Desmond hugs Alex tightly. “I feel better.” He’s quiet for a few minutes. “Do you know what Neal’s up to in there?” He nods back towards the kitchen.
Alex glances towards the kitchen before looking at Desmond and grinning.
“I’m not allowed to tell you.”
“Oh, so it’s okay for you to keep secrets, but not me?”
“It’ll be a nice surprise, I promise.”
Desmond frowns for a moment, but then nods.
“All right. I can wait.”
Ten minutes or so later, Neal comes wandering back into the living room looking slightly disheveled.
Desmond turns to look at Neal and frowns.
“What have you been up to?”
“I made dinner.” Neal grins.
“You didn’t have to do that.”
“I did.” Neal nods seriously. “I need to help out more- that’s what you want.”
“I don’t…”
“It’s the right thing to do as well.” Neal shrugs lightly. “I think maybe I have been taking too much advantage. You never tell me it’s wrong so I keep asking for everything and you give it to me and then I ask for more. I know it’s wrong now so I have to stop and try to be better. I have to help out more.”
“You’re already growing the babies, Neal.”
“I know, but it can’t be just that so I will help out more, now, and I started with making dinner.” Neal frowns slightly. “I don’t think it’s very good, though, but you still have to pretend to like it.”
“Okay.” Desmond smiles brightly. “I can do that.”
“Do I have to?” Alex leans forward slightly and looks at Neal.
Neal folds his arms across his chest and glares at Alex.
“Uh… All right, I can do that too.” Alex smiles at Neal. “I’m sure the dinner you made will be amazing and I love you.”
“That’s the least you can do. Now, are we going to eat or are we going to sit around here talking about it all day?”
Desmond and Alex share a brief loo
k.
“We’re going to eat.”
CHAPTER TEN
George wakes up in the middle of the night and he realizes that he’s alone. He blinks a few times to clear the sleep from his eyes and then looks around the room, but can’t see Calvin anywhere. He groans softly and sits up. He calls out, just in case Calvin is somewhere close by, but he doesn’t get an answer. He climbs out of bed and takes a quick look in the en-suite bathroom to check whether Calvin is there, but he’s not. He walks out of the bedroom and looks up and down the hallway to see whether he can tell where Calvin is, but it looks like the upstairs is empty so he walks downstairs. He checks in the living room, but doesn’t see Calvin there. He’s going to walk across the hall, but then he notices there’s a light on in the kitchen. He walks into the kitchen and finds Calvin sat at the kitchen table, his laptop open in front of him.
“Mark, what are you doing? It’s the middle of the night.”
Calvin shrugs lightly and scrolls through some more pages on his laptop.
George rolls his eyes and walks over to Calvin. He stands just behind Calvin and leans in to see what Calvin is looking at.
“Oh, Mark.” George rests his hand on Calvin’s shoulder. “Please, just let it go and come back to bed.”
“I can’t let it go.” Calvin shrugs George’s hand away.
“Mark, please.” George kneels down next to Calvin’s chair. “Keeping staring at all of that isn’t going to change anything; it’s happening, they’re having those babies. Can’t you just be happy for them and…”
“You think I’m not happy for them?” Calvin pushes himself back slightly and turns to stare at George. He shakes his head. “I see them together and, god knows how, but they make it work.”
“Then what’s your problem? What do you have against this? Because you know they didn’t do this on purpose, right? They weren’t planning on this right now. They probably weren’t planning on this ever happening. It’s not like they went and did this right now just because you were getting some attention and they didn’t like it.”
“It’s not about that.” Calvin folds his arms across his chest and looks away.
“But you said…” George frowns heavily. “Mark, what’s going on?”
Calvin sighs heavily and then turns back to look at George.
“They’re happy right now, I know that, but what about the rest of the time? You know how much they fight, how many times they’ve been apart and not okay. And now they’re having children?”
“And now you’re worried? Mark, you know they’re going to look after those children no matter what.”
“It’s not about that,” Calvin mutters. He looks down at the ground. “How many times have we fought like that? How many times have we been apart? How many times have we said we hated each other? Hardly any, that’s how many. So why…” He lifts his head to look at George. “Why do they get to have children and we don’t?”
“Oh, Mark.” George touches a hand to Calvin’s cheek. He’d never thought that this could be what Calvin was really thinking about. Yeah, they’d talked about having children, but not for a while yet.
“We’re happy, aren’t we? We’re good together? We’re going to be together forever? So why don’t we get that? Why don’t we get to… It’s not fair.” Calvin squeezes his eyes shut to stop his tears from falling. “It’s just not fair.”
George leans up slightly and pulls Calvin into a hug.
Calvin wraps his arms around George.
“We’re not bad people, are we? We haven’t done anything wrong?”
“Don’t ever think that.” George presses a kiss to Calvin’s cheek. “We’re not bad people, not at all. I don’t know how or why, but I promise this is going to happen for us. Maybe not now or not anytime soon, but it is going to happen eventually.”
“You can’t promise me that.”
“It’s meant to happen, Mark.” George pulls back slightly and gently brushes his fingers over Calvin’s cheeks. “God wouldn’t have given you those eyelashes if you weren’t supposed to pass them on.”
Calvin laughs for a moment, but then his face falls.
“It’s just not easy to see people I know having something I want so much.” Calvin sighs lightly. “Desmond is your best friend so I’m going to be seeing them so much and… I can’t just ignore it. I don’t want to ignore it either; I want to be happy for them, but I… I guess I’m just not done being jealous yet.”
“You don’t have to be over it yet, but stop torturing yourself.” George reaches out and pushes Calvin’s laptop shut. “Just come to bed.”
Calvin nods slowly.
George smiles and stands up. He holds a hand out to help Calvin to his feet.
“Don’t worry so much, Mark- it’s all going to be okay.”
“You still can’t promise me that.”
“But I can promise you that I’ll love you forever. Is that enough?”
“I think it’ll do.” Calvin smiles softly. “I should… I should probably apologise to them, shouldn’t I?”
“You can save that until the morning, Mark; please, just come back to bed now.”
“All right- we’ll go to bed.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“Are you sure you’re not going to miss us too much?”
“I’ll be fine, Neal.” Desmond rolls his eyes. “I’ve been on my own without you both before and managed.”
“I wasn’t talking about Alex- I was talking about me and the babies.”
Alex narrows his gaze at Neal.
Neal grins.
Alex shakes his head.
Desmond just about resists the urge to laugh.
“Are you sure you’ll be okay, though? Because I can…”
“Neal, seriously, I’ll be fine. You’ll be calling me every five minutes to check anyway.”
“No, I’ll be calling you every ten minutes.”
“As delightful as this conversation is,” Alex mutters, “you’re going to have to hurry up now, Neal, or you’ll miss the plane.”
“There’ll be another one in like three minutes.” Neal waves away Alex’s concerns. “And why aren’t you rushing to get your plane?”
“Because I don’t have to get on my plane for an hour. Now, come on.” Alex gently nudges Neal. “I know you’re excited to go.”
“Well, yeah.” Neal looks down and scuffs his shoe on the ground. “I have missed everyone. I feel like I haven’t seen Franc in forever.”
“You saw him last week. You sat next to him when we had dinner with your parents.”
“That’s not the point, Alex.” Neal huffs for a moment and then looks up. “So who’s carrying my bags?”
“Your bags are on the plane, Neal.”
“Not this one.” Neal points to the smaller, carry-on bag at his feet.
“I’ll get it.” Desmond picks up the bag and then gives Neal a serious look. “Only because you’re not supposed to be carrying things and not just because you batted your eyelashes.”
Neal leans in towards Alex.
“I like that he thinks that.”
Desmond narrows his gaze slightly.
“Get moving.”
***
“So when Neal said he was going to call every ten minutes, do you think he meant it?” Alex flicks at his coffee mug and glances up at Desmond through his eyelashes.
Desmond raises an eyebrow.
“You have met Neal, right?”
Alex leans back in his chair and shakes his head.
“So that’s a ‘yes’, then?”
“Of course it is.” Desmond smiles fondly. “And then Franc will call to complain about how Neal is driving him crazy with all the baby talk and then Jacob will call to complain and Fabian and…”
“Okay. Okay.” Alex holds a hand up. “I get the picture.”
“Only you won’t be hearing the complaints will you because Boris’s gonna take your cell phone off you the second you get off the plane, right? So I’ll spen
d the next two week hearing from Neal a thousand times a day, even when I’m sleeping, and all the complaints, too.”
“Uh…” Alex glances at Desmond. “Sorry and I love you?”
“Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.” Desmond laughs lightly and shakes his head. “I know you’re looking forward to it, though, so I guess I can’t be too mad about it.”
“Thank you.” Alex reaches out and squeezes Desmond’s hand tightly. “I promise not to have too much fun without you.”
“You’re so good to me.”
“Well, I try.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
Desmond finds it strange to be in the house by himself. Not that he’s there by himself all the time- he has his children there at the weekends, but the rest of the time it’s just him. He’s gotten used to having someone there with him and he didn’t quite realize how much he’d miss that until Neal and Alex were gone. He speaks to them every day, though- well, he speaks to Neal every day; Alex less so because Alex isn’t allowed his phone with him all the time, but he gets lots of e-mails so that’s something at least. He manages to occupy himself, mostly by cleaning out the room that will be the nursery; he’s surprised by how long it actually takes and then he starts dreading having to do that at least two more times because the babies are going to need rooms to sleep in when they’re abroad. He Tweets a picture of the empty room and laughs when Neal replies almost immediately about how he should be ashamed of putting Max to work like that (he was cleaning things out at the weekend and Max insisted on helping- well, mostly Max sat in the corner and played with his toys, but he wanted to be there and that totally counts). He’s happier than he thought he would be when the day that Neal and Alex are supposed to come home finally arrives. He’s trying to distract himself because they’re not supposed to be back until later today. He’s stood in the kitchen, holding a cup and trying to remember which cupboard they’re supposed to go in.
“They go in the cupboard by your head.”
“Thanks, that’s…” Desmond stops and turns around. He frowns heavily when he sees Alex stood in the doorway. “You’re not supposed to be back until later today.”
The Unexpected: An Mpreg Romance Page 6