Always Another Side

by Annabelle Jacobs

  “Of course you are.”

  With a groan, Tyler opened his eyes, blinked a couple of times, and then yawned. “Sorry.” He rubbed at his face, looking marginally more awake when he propped himself up on one elbow and faced Jack. “I clearly can’t keep up with my brother anymore. He’s only got three years on me, but Christ, him and his girlfriend never seem to bloody sleep.”

  Jack reached for the box of tissues next to the bed. He passed one to Tyler so he could dispose of the condom, and then cleaned off his stomach before rolling onto his side to match Tyler. “Did you have a good time, though?”

  Tyler smiled. “Yeah, it was good to see him. Despite him making me feel old. He still drinks like a student—if I’d tried to keep up, I’d still be passed out in his flat.”

  “Well, thank God you’re old and sensible now.” Jack grinned when Tyler poked him in retaliation. “And yes, I know I’m even older than you.”

  Tyler ran his finger down Jack’s chest, pausing when he reached his flat belly. “A hot older man.”

  Jack rolled his eyes and batted Tyler’s hand away. “Let’s not talk about age anymore. You’re ruining my post-orgasm mood.” He leaned forward and captured Tyler’s mouth in a quick but deep kiss, and Tyler moaned into it.

  “Sorry.” Tyler continued his exploration of Jack’s body, his touch light as he trailed his fingers down Jack’s side and over his hip. “What did you do this weekend?”

  They settled into a more comfortable position with Jack laid flat and Tyler curled up beside him. “Well, I met up with a couple of friends I haven’t seen since I split with Simon.”

  “Oh, how did that go?”

  Jack huffed out a laugh as he remembered the initial ten minutes. “It was awkward to start with—all of us dancing around the big elephant in the room. I know they still see Simon, and it’s not like they haven’t tried to get me to go out with them, but I never felt ready. Once we got that out of the way, and I expressed no hard feelings, then it was good. I’ve missed them both, and it made me realise there’s a few other people I need to reconnect with too.”

  Tyler ran his hand up Jack’s chest and let it rest above his heart. “I’m glad it went well.”

  “Oh.” Jack suddenly remembered what else he’d done on Saturday. “I almost forgot. You know those houses I showed you on Wednesday?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Well, I popped in to see Sarah on Saturday afternoon, and it turns out one of them will be available to view next weekend. She also showed me a few more properties that looked promising.” Jack had been pleasantly surprised by the choice of properties currently on the market. He’d imagined months of searching until he found the right house, but out of the ten houses Sarah had shown him, he found he definitely liked five of them with two more being maybes. Of course it might be a different story when he went to see them, but for now he felt a building excitement at the prospect of owning his own home again.

  He nudged Tyler until he shifted back a little and met Jack’s gaze. “I’ve arranged to see two of them this week, three more at the weekend, and possibly two more the following weekend.”

  “Wow, that was quick.”

  “Well, you need to be quick when suitable properties come onto the market.” Jack tried to read Tyler’s expression to gauge whether he still had an interest in going to see the houses with him, but all he could see there was surprise. “I know that’s a lot of places to see, and obviously I wouldn’t expect you to come with me for all of them, but I was wondering if—”

  “I’d love to come and see them with you.” Tyler kissed him softly, and Jack’s heart stuttered at the look of… well, he didn’t want to put a name to it yet, but Tyler’s gaze was full of a warmth that made Jack want to tackle him under the covers and never come out. “All of them if I can, and if you want me to?”

  Jack nodded, a little stunned by the offer although he didn’t know why. Tyler had been up front from the start about how easily he fell into relationships. Jack shouldn’t be surprised he was so invested in this one already. “I’d like that. The ones in the week are on Wednesday and Thursday lunchtimes.”

  Tyler grinned. “Should be okay, I’ll check when I go into work tomorrow.” He settled back down with his head on Jack’s chest.

  Jack played with the ends of Tyler’s hair, curling it through his fingers. “I also heard back from a couple of the landscape gardeners, the ones I told you about on Thursday.”

  “Oh yeah?”

  “One is fully booked for the next three months, but the other can see Deb in four weeks’ time, if she wants to go ahead with them.”

  “Remind me to call her later and let her know.”

  “I already did.” Jack hoped he hadn’t overstepped or anything, but their services were in demand.

  “You don’t waste any time, do you?”

  “Well, I didn’t want them to book with anyone else, and with summer coming up, they’re going to be busy, so—”

  Tyler sat up again, more fully this time. He put a hand on Jack’s cheek and placed his thumb over Jack’s lips to stop him talking. “I didn’t mean to make you defensive. I’m not mad you contacted her or anything like that. I know you don’t need me to act as a middleman. I’m grateful you went to all that trouble for her.”

  Jack frowned. “Why wouldn’t I?”

  For whatever reason, that made Tyler’s smile huge and he pounced, pinning Jack to the bed and kissing him until they were both breathless and hard again.

  It was at least another hour before they made it out of bed to find food.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Tyler pulled up on the drive behind Jack’s car and hurried to get out. Jack stood chatting with the estate agent by the front door. “Sorry I’m late. Work called as I was leaving the house.”

  This was the tenth house they’d been to see. Over the past three weeks, they’d looked at all sorts of places—detached, semi-detached, bungalows—but none of them had been what Jack was looking for. Tyler had liked a couple of them, but even he had to admit none of them had stood out. He knew Jack was getting despondent about the whole thing, but as Tyler kept telling him, they’d only been looking for a short while, and something was bound to turn up soon.

  Jack walked over to him, a huge smile in place as Tyler locked his car.

  “Is that smile for me or the house?” Tyler asked, smiling back.

  “Both.” When Jack’s smile widened, Tyler’s heart sped up. He looked more excited than Tyler had seen him when viewing any of the other properties.

  Tyler stepped back and took a good look at the house in front of him. It definitely needed a bit of TLC—especially the garden—but maybe that was what had got Jack excited. The other places they’d viewed had well-tended gardens, which were beautiful but needed little doing to them. This one looked to be in a worse state than his auntie Deb’s was, but Jack wanted a blank canvas.

  Jack came to stand next to Tyler and elbowed him in the ribs. “Well, what do you reckon?”

  “You’re buying it, not me.” Tyler said it every time, and it always got a rise out of Jack.

  “Oh fuck off. Tell me what you think of the place.” Jack put his hands on his hips and turned to Tyler expectantly.

  “Well… it’s big enough. There’s a lot of land. Not as much as the last house we saw, but I think this one is better laid out.” Jack nodded in agreement. “And it’s in a total state. So I think the outside is just about perfect for you.”

  “Yes, I think so too.”

  The estate agent, Sarah, walked over to them, keys in hand. “Are you ready to take a look inside?” She glanced between the two of them and smiled.

  “Yes.” Jack nodded and gestured for her to lead the way. “That would be great, thanks.”

  Tyler followed and crossed his fingers that this one was as great on the inside. He didn’t want to see any more disappointment on Jack’s face.

  “Oh.” Jack stopped inside the front door.

  The h
all was bigger than the one in Tyler’s house. It was more of a square shape with a big understairs cupboard. With the stairs directly in front of them and a door on either side, Tyler didn’t know where to look first. Thankfully, Sarah did, and she led them left into the kitchen and dining area.

  She showed them the living room with patio doors leading out into the back garden. Upstairs were two good-sized bedrooms and a small box room. The bathroom wasn’t as big as the one in Jack’s flat—and Tyler would definitely miss that shower—but you couldn’t have everything. He caught Jack’s eye when they left the bathroom, and blushed when Jack nodded at the shower and mouthed “I’ll put a bigger one in.”

  Either Sarah didn’t see him, or she politely chose to ignore it.

  On the whole, the interior could do with redecorating, but that was about it. The kitchen was modern, and according to Sarah was only two years old. The carpets and wooden floors appeared to be in good condition, and from what Jack had told him on their various other viewings, it seemed to be more or less what he was looking for. Tyler held his breath and walked over to where Jack was looking out of the living room windows.

  Sarah had disappeared, rightly sensing they wanted some time alone to discuss.

  “What are you thinking?” Tyler put his arm around Jack’s waist and gave him a squeeze. “You like it, don’t you?” he added when Jack didn’t answer straightaway.

  With a heavy sigh, Jack relaxed into Tyler’s body. “Yes. I really do.”

  They stood looking out at the tangled mess of the garden. Tyler wondered if Jack was already making plans. It came as no surprise when Jack whispered, “I think I’m going to put in an offer.”

  “We should celebrate.” Jack waited for Tyler to take off his coat before pushing him against the wall and kissing him.

  “Hmm….” Tyler kissed him back, not wanting to let him go, but Jack was too excited to stay still. He marched off down the hallway into his kitchen, leaving Tyler still leaning against the wall.

  He’d followed Jack home after leaving Sarah with Jack’s offer and her promise to get in touch with the vendors as soon as possible. “Don’t you think you should wait? They haven’t even accepted your offer yet.”

  Jack poked his head around the door frame. “You heard what Sarah said—it’s been on the market for eighteen months, they must be desperate to sell by now.”

  “I know, but I still think you shouldn’t be tempting fate.” Tyler wasn’t overly superstitious, but in this case he didn’t want to take any chances.

  Jack sighed, but his smile stayed in place. “Okay, how about we celebrate finding somewhere. I guess even if this one falls through, I have a better idea of what I’m after now. So let’s drink to that.”

  Tyler shook his head, but agreed. “Fine, crack open the bubbly, then.” The last thing he wanted to do was dampen Jack’s enthusiasm. He was almost as excited as Jack was, and more than once had to remind himself that it was Jack’s house, not their house. The way Jack acted sometimes made it easy to forget that.

  When Tyler walked into the kitchen, Jack was putting a bottle of Prosecco into the freezer.

  Jack glanced up as he shut the freezer door. “Typical that I don’t have any cold when we need it. We’ll have to have a glass of red first.” He walked over to his wine rack and pulled out a bottle of Rioja—Tyler’s favourite, he noted—and handed it to Tyler. “Can you open that while I dig out the takeaway menus?”

  “Sure.”

  Jack passed him the bottle opener and then started rummaging in the kitchen drawers where he kept the menus and other crap.

  Tyler peeled off the wrapper on the neck of the bottle, but when he went to push the corkscrew in, the handle snapped. “Shit.” The bottle slipped out of his hands, but he managed to grab it before it fell to the floor. God, that nearly gave him a heart attack. “Um…Jack?” He waited for Jack to look over his shoulder and then held up the broken corkscrew. “Sorry. Have you got another?”

  “Yeah, there should be a spare in one of those drawers.” He pointed at the sideboard next to the dining table. “And don’t worry, that one’s been on its last legs for a while. Aha!” He pulled out the takeaway menus with a flourish and started looking through them as Tyler turned and headed over to get another bottle opener.

  The first drawer he tried held place mats and serviettes but nothing else. The one next to it had a couple of photos frames in it, they were face down, so Tyler figured they were probably of Jack and Simon, and not something he needed to see. A glint of silver at the back of the drawer caught his eye, and he pulled the drawer out farther until he saw the telltale twists of the spare corkscrew.

  He reached in to pull it out, and a couple of loose photographs came out with it. Tyler couldn’t help but look as he separated them from the corkscrew handle.

  The first was an old one of Jack with his arm around a girl. They looked young, about fifteen or sixteen, and Tyler was almost positive the girl was Zena. She had crazy backcombed hair, and Tyler grinned at the two of them pulling faces at the camera. He set it carefully back in the drawer, still smiling. When his gaze landed on the second photo, he froze.

  Two young men in caps and gowns stared back at him, and all of a sudden, it was hard to swallow around the lump in his throat. The guy on the left was definitely Jack. Tyler recognised him even with the cap shoved so far forward it almost covered his eyes. But the one on the left…

  Fuck no, it can’t be.

  With shaking fingers, Tyler turned the picture over and read the faded scrawled handwriting on the back.

  Archie and Simon – graduation

  Tyler frowned in confusion and flipped the photo over again. No, he wasn’t mistaken. Jack was the one on the left, and the guy with his arm around Jack’s shoulders, smiling at him as if he hung the fucking moon—that was James. Tyler’s James.

  The same James who had cheated on his long-term boyfriend, Archie,—Tyler had seen the name on James’s phone—with Tyler. Bile rose up the back of his throat as all the pieces clicked horrifyingly into place. Jack’s words sliced through him like a knife…

  “We met at uni….”

  “Oh God,” Tyler whispered, unable to look away from the photo. He didn’t understand. How was James in that picture when the writing on the back said Simon? Maybe James had an identical cousin or a brother Tyler didn’t know about. Anything was possible, right? And Archie? Why would Jack—?

  “Everything all right?” Jack’s voice startled Tyler so badly he jumped, almost dropping everything. “What have you got there?”

  Before Tyler could react, Jack plucked the photo out of his hands.

  Tyler’s mouth was so dry it took him a couple of goes to get the words out. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to snoop, it got caught in the handle and I—”

  He had no idea how to say any of the things currently swirling around in his mind.

  “No, it’s fine.” Jack waved away his apology. “I forgot they were in there.”

  Tyler didn’t want to ask, but he had to know for sure, even though he knew deep down there couldn’t be any other explanation. “It says Archie and Simon on the back…”

  Jack smiled wistfully as he stared at the picture a moment longer before flipping it over. “My nickname had always been Archie, all through school. You know, because my last name’s Bowman, so Archer/Archie?”

  Tyler nodded, not trusting himself to speak. His palms started to sweat and he discreetly wiped them on his thighs.

  “Well, Simon had never had a nickname, so he decided since he hated his first name so much—he was named James after his dad—that he’d just use his middle name.”

  And there it was. The inescapable truth.

  Fucking hell.

  Heart pounding, Tyler glanced down at the photo that had possibly ruined everything. No, scratch that, there was no possibly about it. When Jack found out Tyler was one of the men Simon had cheated on him with… well, Tyler didn’t see them coming back from that.

 
“Anyway, that’s in the past.” Jack nudged Tyler with his hip as he slipped the photo back into the drawer. “No one calls me that anymore.” He looked at Tyler and smiled, and Tyler felt sick. “Hey.” Jack put his hand up to Tyler’s forehead. “Are you feeling okay? You’ve gone very pale.” He looked so full of concern and worry and all Tyler could think was how that would change if Jack found out the truth.

  His stomach roiled, and with his hand clamped over his mouth, Tyler rushed down the hall into the bathroom. He made it to the toilet just in time. Resting his head on the edge of the seat, Tyler closed his eyes as he heard Jack’s hurried footsteps in the hallway.

  He didn’t open his eyes when Jack came into the bathroom, unable to look at him, knowing what he knew now.

  Jesus Christ, how am I going to look at him and tell him the truth?

  Tyler vividly remembered their conversation at Leigh Woods, and how Jack had initially reacted when Tyler told him about his last relationship. There was no way he’d be so accepting when he found out Tyler had slept with Simon, the man who’d broken Jack’s heart. The thought of it had him leaning back over the toilet and retching.

  “Shit, Tyler, are you okay?” Jack placed a cool, wet flannel on his forehead and huffed. “Sorry, what a stupid question. You’re being sick in my toilet. Of course you’re not okay.”

  Tyler laughed despite everything. Jack’s obvious annoyance with himself momentarily distracting him from the fucked-up situation he was now in.

  “Have you finished? Do you want to go and get in my bed?” Jack leaned down and kissed Tyler’s temple. “I think we’d best leave the celebrating for a couple of days, don’t you?” His voice was warm, full of concern, and Tyler didn’t think it was possible to feel any worse than he currently did.

  He’d forgotten they were supposed to be celebrating. Ten minutes ago he’d been on cloud nine, swept along by Jack’s enthusiasm and for once thinking everything might actually turn out okay. He should have fucking known. Each brush of Jack’s hand through his hair made Tyler’s heart hurt. He wanted to lean into the touch so badly, but it felt wrong to take advantage of Jack’s offered comfort.