Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

David decides he hates Vegas. Oh sure, it’s all fun and games when all of you agree to go on a big trip with the anticipation being you’ll all stick together, but now that all his friends have ditched him and he’s alone at a bar on his fifth drink of Old Glory, he wishes for nothing more than the warmth and comfort of his own bed back in New York. 

His only saving grace is that at least he doesn’t seem to be doing as poorly as the guy further down the bar from him. He’s been watching him—in as non-creepy of a way as staring at a stranger at a bar can be—and from what he’s seen, the guy is really going through something. He’s been at the bar for at least the whole time David’s been there and he’s slamming back drink after drink. 

He wants to say something—he should say something—but he’s nervous. The last thing this guy probably wants is some other guy lecturing him on how much he should or shouldn’t be drinking. He’s still internally debating with himself when the decision is made for him. The guy catches his eye. 

This is it, David thinks. This is how I die. Staring at a stranger in a bar in Vegas.  

The guy comes closer to him and David spends that time sizing him up. Well, he tells himself that’s what he’s doing—since this guy could totally take him in a fight—but instead what he’s doing is admiring the muscle that he can tell lurks beneath the guy’s blue button-down, showcased by his exposed and sculpted forearms.

David thinks that the guy’s hands look like they know how to throw a punch right at David’s face, but he also can’t help but picture how they’d look wrapped around his cock.

He quickly shakes that thought away. Wow, it has been a while since he’s gotten laid. That’s the only reason he’s having these thoughts, right? That mixed with the fact that he’s imbibed of lots of alcohol in such a short time span.

Patrick thinks at first that he’s just seeing things. The guy sitting further down the bar from him is not staring at him, he’s being paranoid or getting drunken hallucinations. The weirdest part isn’t that he thinks the guy might be staring at him, but rather, the fact that when he looks over, and sees that he is, indeed, staring at him, he gets a little thrill inside. 

Where is this coming from? I must be really fucking drunk. 

At first, he just ignores him, not sure what he would do or say if he were to interact anyway. But a few minutes pass, and he keeps stealing glances of the guy stealing glances at him and he stands and approaches him, overcome by a drunken confidence and an overwhelming desire to get to know this man sitting down the bar from him. 

“Are you so drunk you didn’t notice you were staring at me for a long time?”

David squishes back his features in offense. “Um, excuse me, you’re one to talk.”

The guy laughs. “Fair enough. I’m Patrick.”

“David.”

David flags the bartender down for another drink, and Patrick joins him in the gesture.

He sets himself down in the open seat next to David. “Mind if I sit here?” he asks, as he’s already confidently planted his (very nice, David notes) ass in the seat. He smirks at David. “It might make it easier for you to stare at me.”

David does a sharp inhale. “You’re cocky,” he says, narrowing his eyes, and then he tries to backtrack. “Anyway, sorry, I just was wondering if you were okay.”

Patrick’s eyes glint mischievously. “I only share that info with my friends.”

“Well, it seems as if you want to pursue a friendship with the way you proceeded to flop yourself down beside me, but what if I buy you a drink, will that entice you to be friends and spill your secrets?”

“Maybe if I can buy you one, too.”

“Deal,” David agrees just as the bartender shows up.

“Another Old Glory?” the girl, whose name tag reads CASSIE, asks; she knows David’s order by now in the hours he’s been here. He nods.

“Yeah, but I’m buying it for him this time,” Patrick interjects. Cassie’s eyebrow raises suggestively and she suddenly looks intrigued by what’s unfolding in front of her.

“Of course,” she agrees smoothly. “And anything for you?”

“I’ll take a whiskey sour, please.”

Cassie grins and turns to David. “And I take it you’ll be buying that one for him?”

“Mm, yes I will.”

Biting her lip, Cassie nods and turns to her bottles of alcohol. “One second.”

“Does that mean you’re not okay?” David asks, turning his attention back to Patrick.

“How does my choice of drink say that?” Patrick asks, amused.

David shrugs. “You seem like the type of person who drinks hard liquor when they’re upset.”

Patrick is spared from answering by Cassie sliding a drink in front of him, which he takes a sip of.

“What? Are you saying that people who are perfectly okay wouldn’t be drinking this type of alcohol?”

David sighs. He knows what Patrick’s doing. And normally he wouldn’t even think about doing what he is about to do, but something about Patrick makes him think he needs to hear a sob story before sharing his own. Lord knows David’s partaken of enough alcohol to be comfortable with even the thought of sharing.

“I guess it’s not so much only the type that speaks volumes. It’s that, paired with your rapid consumption. But hey, I can’t really talk.” David starts. “I’m here because my friends all decided they could come to Vegas with me on my dime and then ditch me without a second thought.” He shrugs, trying to appear blasé and as if the whole thing is no big deal, purposely ignoring when Patrick gets a look on his face like he’s sorry for him and also ignoring the tug in his gut when he sees it.

David stares at his brightly colored drink instead and takes a sip before resuming the stare. “Truth is, I didn’t even want to come here, not really, but they talked me into it. But hey, something good did come out of it.”

Patrick looks up at him and asks, “Oh yeah? And what’s that?”

“I get to sit here and talk to you.”

David can’t believe he just said that to Patrick, a person he barely knew. He can’t believe he had said any of the things to him he had so far.

What the hell. It’s not like he’d be seeing this guy ever again after tonight. Hell, he most likely won’t even remember this conversation next morning, if he’s lucky.

The smile on Patrick’s face—the first smile David had seen from the man all night—is worth it though, David thinks. He’s amazed at how beautiful a smile Patrick has on his stupid beautiful face. 

“That’s sweet of you to say, David.” 

“Yeah, well, don’t get used to it. Sweet is not exactly on-brand for me.”

“That’s okay. I like salty things too, maybe a little sour.” As he says this, Patrick nudges him with his shoulder, earning a grin from him. “Whatever flavor you are, I like it.”

David thinks Patrick has to be too drunk to notice just how bad that sounds. He wants to laugh, but instead makes it out to be a cough instead, not wanting to hurt his new acquaintance’s feelings. Were they acquaintances? Or have they earned the title of friends by now? David still wasn’t sure, even though they’d agreed that buying each other drinks made them friends. Had they really agreed? Had Patrick agreed?

Patrick sighs and finishes off his drink. “You’re right though. I’m not okay. And before you tell me about how unhealthy it is to be trying to drink my problems away, I know, okay? I don’t need a lecture. Guidance? Clarity? Some goddamn peace of mind? Sure, but not a lecture.”

David lets out a breath he is not aware he’s holding in and says, “I’m the last person on this earth who has any right to lecture anyone about any unhealthy choice they make so have at it. You might regret it in the morning, but, hey, that’s on you.” 

“Thank you,” Patrick says. 

“For what?”

“Being respectful of my decisions. Not a lot of people have been lately.”

“Care to elaborate on that?”

“Do you ever feel like your life isn’t yours, not really?”

David wants to say no, what absurd drunken nonsense is this, but he thinks he gets it. Being the son of a well-known entrepreneur and an actress, always having to follow in their footsteps, not being able to go anywhere without questions, and expectations, and assumptions thrown every which way of who he is and how he should act. Because he’s a Rose. 

“It’s never crossed my mind in so many words, but now that you mention it, yes.”

“It’s bullshit, David,” Patrick bursts out, and then he seems to deflate now that the anger’s out. He sighs.

"I’ve always thought maybe there’s something wrong with me. That I don’t want what’s expected from me, so I must be the problem.” He stops, and David struggles with how to respond, but before he has to, Patrick speaks again.

“But maybe the problem is that society ingrains in us from a very young age a certain timeline by which we are expected to abide and I don’t want to be some fucking puppet with society up my ass.”

The speech sounds like Patrick has been holding it inside for a very long time.

“So society is why you’re here? That’s funny, you don’t strike me as a contrarian, Patrick.” 

“Well, maybe you’re just proving my point then, David. I’m sorry I don’t fit your preconceived notions of what I would be like.” Patrick sighs then and continues, “I’m sorry, David, I know you’re just trying to help. I didn’t mean to get snippy with you.”

“Yes, you were very snippy, but that’s okay. You still haven’t really told me what’s bothering you though and I remember you saying something about wanting guidance, but I don’t know how to help guide you if I still don’t really know what the problem is.”

“Rachel and I have been together for eight years, right?”

“Ah, here we go, here’s the juicy stuff. Hold that thought, I’m gonna get us some more drinks. Cassie, could you please get me a raspberry Cosmopolitan, I’m feeling like changing it up. And he’ll have a whiskey apple pie. Trust me, you’ll like this,” David says, turning and looking at Patrick. “Sorry, now that that’s out of the way, continue.”

“She’s a lovely girl, really. The sweetest person I know. And I do love her, or at least...I’m pretty sure I do.” He exhales again. “I like being around her, that’s love, right?”

He continues on. “But no matter what, there just always seems to be something lacking. It’s not her fault, I think it has to do with me, but everyone’s always asking me ‘when are you two gonna get married? Start a family?’ and those questions fill me with dread every time.

“And not the sort of dread that’s like ‘eh, I hate going to the dentist, but it’s necessary and soon it’ll be over,’ no, a deep sense of dread. It fills me up, overcomes me with a sense that I would be doing myself and Rachel a huge injustice if I were to do any of that. And I shouldn’t marry someone just because that’s what everyone else wants from me.”

“Well, you’re right about that,” David says. “I’ve never even reached the point where I thought marriage was a thing for me, but if I ever do, I need to be sure, you know?” 

“And so that’s where I found myself. Packing for this business trip for a job I don’t really like, in a relationship that’s had more downs than ups lately, and it just came out. That I didn’t want to get married. She told me not to go back. So after this, I don’t really know what’s in store for me, and that should scare me—Patrick ‘always has a plan’ Brewer—but it doesn’t. Why isn’t it scaring me?”

“So, let me make sure I’m hearing this correctly, you’re freaking out because you’re not freaking out more and you think you should be?”

“You think I’m weird, I can see it all over your face.” 

David purses his lips and shakes his head no in a big, wide arc from side to side with his eyes closed. “Mm. No. No, I do not think you’re weird.”

He finishes off the very last of his Old Glory in anticipation of his raspberry Cosmopolitan, and he turns back to Patrick.

“I think you were deeply unhappy, and now you’re not. And now you don’t know what to do about it. But it’s okay to be happy.”

Patrick stares at him, and at that moment Cassie reappears with their new drinks.

“Enjoy,” she says quickly, and David absentmindedly notices how she immediately heads to a girl next to them and seems to stay there, and thinks good for her.

Patrick, meanwhile, is sipping at his new drink of Jack Daniels, apple juice, and grenadine. “You’re right,” he says, bringing David back to his attention. “I do like this. I like apples.”

“That’s good. You know, I had that drink once at a concert in Prague.”

“What’s yours?”

“Um, it is a lot of raspberry.”

Patrick nods. “Raspberry and apple,” he muses.

“I bet those taste nice together,” David blurts out.

Patrick stares at him, wide-eyed.

Next to them, a girl starts cackling.

They both turn to her, and David realizes it’s the same girl that Cassie was talking to, although Cassie is now off attending to other customers. She snorts with the last of her laughter, which sets her off giggling again.

“Sorry,” she says, “but that’s the absolute worst pick-up line I’ve ever heard.” David and Patrick both blink at her. “I’ll give you this, though,” she continues, still laughing and raising her glass out and up above her head in a toast, “at least it was original.” She takes a drink as part of her toast with no one and sets the glass back on the bar.

“I’m sorry, who are you?” David asks.

“Your worst nightmare,” she responds quickly and with a completely straight face, looking David dead in the eyes.

David starts to turn away. “Okay, we’ve had enough of you.”

“I’m Stevie,” the girl says just as he’s turned around.

David turns back. “David,” he offers warily.

“Patrick,” Patrick says, holding his hand for Stevie to shake.

“So are you two gonna keep flirting with each other without letting it go anywhere or is it cool if I join you?” Stevie asks bluntly. David and Patrick both start.

“Excuse me?” David cries.

“What?” Patrick chokes out.

Stevie waves her hand dismissively and takes another sip of her drink. “Oh, not like that, I’m not into dudes. Besides, you two obviously have something going here.”

Patrick looks at her, eyes wide, choking on his drink. When he regains his ability to speak, he sputters, “I...what?! Clearly, you have the wrong idea. We, we don’t know each other. I mean, it’s not like that, we just, uhhh—" He trails off awkwardly, taking a sip of his drink to avoid having to finish his sentence.

“Were making googly eyes at each other?” Stevie interrupts, and rolls her eyes. “Yeah, I know, it’s disgusting. I mean, I haven’t flirted that much with women I’ve actually slept with, and I thought I was gay as you could get.”

Patrick laughs nervously. “Gay? Me? I’m not. Uh.” He pauses, steels himself. “I’m not gay.” His throat closes up and he swallows to try to get it open again.

Stevie raises an eyebrow and looks at him with a slight smirk. “Could’ve fooled me. And him,” she adds, nodding at David.

Patrick stares at her, his breathing deep, and David stares between both of them, and Stevie seems to sense that she’s said something too far, because she abruptly changes the subject.

“So you up for more drinks and some fun? Some scaggy uncle of mine died and left me a ton of money and I intend to use it. And hey! Guess what. I got an in with the bartender!” Stevie opens her mouth wide as though this is an incredulous fact.

“Cassie gets off in ten minutes, and then you should come with us.” Then she smirks. “She’ll also be getting off later tonight if I have any say in it.”

“I don’t know how to respond to that,” David tells her.

Stevie shrugs. “All I’m saying is, stick with me and my girl, and you get the discounts.” She then turns and gives an apologetic look to Cassie who in turn winks at her and blows her a kiss.

***

Patrick’s eyes snap open and immediately he regrets it. The sunshine, although usually a welcome thing, is now his mortal enemy, and he wishes it would just go away. 

How much I did I have to drink last night? And more important question, where the hell am I? 

He tries, amid his pounding headache, to remember something, anything, from the night before, but he’s having trouble. 

Instead, he focuses on finding out where he is. He looks around, taking his surroundings in.  He notices that he’s in a huge suite, definitely not the one his company had arranged for him to stay in, and it’s then that he notices he’s not alone. No, next to him is a man with dark, almost black, hair, curly and ruffled from sleep, who’s not wearing a shirt. Being so close to the man, he gets a whiff of his cologne. 

The door is barely even closed before David is slamming him into it, kissing him. Patrick’s eyes flutter, relishing in the feel of David’s lips on his own, and then he moves down to his neck, and Patrick gasps.

They move, David slowly leading him towards the bed, all the while kissing passionately. Patrick’s need to be closer and closer to him growing steadily. As he kisses his neck, he breathes in the intoxicating smell of David’s cologne.

Patrick blinks and shakes his head slightly at the rush of—memories? Dreams?—that flooded into his head, bringing himself back to reality. To the man in his bed, who has turned his head in his sleep so that Patrick can see his face and who is absolutely, definitely the man he made out with. Possibly. Hopefully?

Patrick’s fingers brush against his lips, as if they’d feel different after kissing a guy and he’d be able to tell by touch. He realizes how casually the thought of him having kissed another guy crosses his mind and does a double take. Clearly, he has a lot to think about, but right now —in this strange environment— with his thoughts all cloudy and his mind all foggy, is not the time nor place.

It bothers him that he remembers so little of what occurred the previous night. Sure, he’d had nights in high school or college where he’d gone out drinking with some buddies. But never before had he let things get so out of hand, never had he allowed himself to lose so much control; and having the now-wicked hangover and only a fragment of the memories of the night before to show for it, he vows to never do so again.

He begins to get himself cleaned up, to try to gain some semblance of normalcy when he notices the two girls tangled up in each other’s arms on the loveseat by the window. 

His first instinct is to yell, having been startled by the two, but luckily he holds it in, stifling the noise in his throat. He doesn’t really feel like making these people he apparently shared a room with overnight his enemies, knowing that they’re probably in a similar state as him.

He racks his brain, desperately wondering if it will helpfully supply him with who these girls are or why they are here, but he comes up empty. It almost hurts his head more—if such a thing is possible—to realize there are even more unanswered questions and unknowns than he had previously thought, and already there had been quite a few.

If he never touches another glass of whiskey again, it’ll be too soon.

He’s startled out of his thoughts by a loud, sudden bang. His head quickly turns toward the source of the noise and he sees that one of the women has fallen on the floor. In a brief moment of panic, he wonders if he should help her up when he notices that both the other woman and the man he woke up next to are starting to stir.

The woman who’s on the floor doesn’t seem affected at all, still fully unconscious, but not for long because the man gets up and almost trips on her, letting out a yelp, and forcing her awake. To her credit, she only lifts her head, scowls, and looks annoyed at having been woken up.

For a moment, the four of them just sit in silence, staring at each other. Patrick wonders if they remember any more about how they got here or what had occurred last night than he does. 

This most certainly is not the first time David has woken up to a room full of strangers and a killer hangover. As to why they are here, or how they got to be here, well, that bit he’s a little more fuzzy on. 

He rules out the possibility of the four of them having been involved in a foursome, noticing that the two girls were tangled up together on the couch after one of them helps the one he almost tripped over back up again. No, the two of them seem more into each other than either himself or the other man.

This thought serves as a reminder to him that he had, in fact, woken up in the middle of the night and discovered the other man sleeping on his chest, but he hadn’t stayed awake long enough after that to take note of much more.

He figures he will just order them all some breakfast and then kindly ask them to fuck off so he can sleep off his hangover. His intention to do that is interrupted, however, by his bare foot touching something rubbery and cold. He bends down to pick it up and sees that it is a popped white balloon.

They’re all giggling; himself and his three other roommates. They stumbled into what appeared to be a chapel decorated with white balloons and streamers. One of the girls is screaming into her phone. The other girl is filming her and then leans in to kiss her on the cheek.

“It looked like a wedding,” David murmurs and then notices the other man look at him with wide eyes.

“Wedding? Why’d you say wedding?” Patrick asks as he whips his head over to look at David—ah yes, that’s his name, he vaguely remembers that. 

“I think we attended someone’s wedding last night. Or at least, I keep seeing snippets of a chapel and like white balloons? Which is super tacky, but I won’t get into that right now because that’s not what this conversation is about.”

Patrick stares at him, trying hard to conjure up something, anything, from his previously blackout drunk thoughts, but sadly, nothing. He still only remembers making out with David, and he’s sure his face is bright red at the memory. He asks, “Did we know anyone who was getting married?”

The darker-haired woman—who he thinks is named Stevie—crosses her arms at his question and asks sarcastically, “Patrick, I don’t know if you know this, but none of us knew each other mere hours ago so would it have mattered to us?” 

Ah, his name is Patrick! David thinks to himself. That’s right! I had forgotten that! 

“Well, it’s just that, how would we have known unless—” Patrick cuts himself off in shock.

“Unless?” Stevie prompts.

“Unless two of us married each other.”

“Why, why would you say that, Patrick?” David asks in a panic.

Patrick doesn’t answer. He’s too busy staring at Cassie and Stevie. “Did you two get married last night?”

Cassie looked freaked a little bit, but Stevie says, deadpan, “Nope. It wasn’t us.”

“How can you be so sure?” Patrick demands.

“Intuition,” she says, in a joking manner. 

Patrick starts to say something about how maybe this isn’t the best time for jokes—especially about this particular topic when all of them are hungover, grumpy, and freaked out—but is interrupted by the sound of a phone going off. At first, there’s just one notification sound, but then it just keeps making noise, and all of them desperately try to figure out whose it is so they can silence it.

The culprit is David and he receives some very dirty looks from Cassie and Stevie. David gasps, drops his phone, and reaches for the remote. He turns on the news and each of them yell at him in protest.

“Turn that down, David!” Cassie yells.

“David, I’m gonna kill you,” Stevie adds.

“David, I’m kind of having a crisis here, is now really the best time for the ne—?” Patrick stops what he’s saying as he notices the top headline on the TV screen, in big, bold letters: David Rose’s Vegas Wedding?!

It’s only then that Patrick notices his own phone vibrating on the side table. He reaches for it and he only has to look at the first name—Rachel—before he feels the urge to be violently ill. He rushes into the bathroom and slams the door behind him, barely making it to the toilet in time before all the contents of his stomach are emptied into the toilet bowl.

Once he’s finished vomiting, he slides down on the floor, daring to look at his phone again.

[From Rachel] 

Hey, I just saw the news. Can we talk, when you get a chance, please?

[From Mom] 

Patrick, honey, we should talk. Please call me or Dad.

[From Dad] 

Patrick, we’re worried about you. Please call your mom or me. 

[From Mom] 

Patrick, I promise we’re not mad at you. We just want to make sure you’re doing okay.

David follows Patrick with his eyes, watching as he goes into the bathroom. 

David tries not to panic. Rather, he tries not to show just how panicked he feels on the outside. Inside, his mind is a swirling mess of trying to figure out what to do in this situation and trying to remember how it had even happened, but on the outside, he wants to seem calm because one of the two of them had to be. 

Who is he kidding? His father’s going to kill him. He can already hear his  mother screaming hysterically about how he had ruined their “simULAcrum” and his sister would just laugh and tell some story about how she nearly married someone, but got out of it. No, it’s only him that seems to commit these heinous infractions and pay the price for them.

Stevie has not known David for very long, hell, she hasn’t known any of these people for very long, but she can tell David is about three seconds away from completely losing his shit. Since both of them were freaking out and nothing productive could come from that, she decides the best solution would be for them to divide and conquer. 

She murmurs quietly, “Okay, Cassie, I think this is probably gonna go better if we each take one. I’ll try to calm David down if you make sure Patrick’s okay. He’s been in that bathroom for a very long time.” Cassie nods and pecks a quick kiss on Stevie’s lips before she hoists herself up to standing with a groan as her head hurts from the shift.

It is bad enough that his family is going to react poorly, but what about Patrick? The thought made him panic even more. Patrick hadn’t even known him for twenty-four hours and now he’s legally attached to him. The poor guy.

Stevie was teasing Patrick about something and Patrick looked extremely uncomfortable. He stuttered out, “Me, gay? I’m uh, I’m not gay.” 

The brief flash of memory struck him suddenly, making him feel nauseous. He pushed the nausea down, knowing Patrick needed the toilet more than he did at this moment. 

Once he’s sure Cassie has closed the door behind her and Patrick can’t hear him, David says, “I’m freaking out, Stevie.”

David begins pacing back and forth and Stevie just says, calmly, “Don’t freak out, everything is gonna be okay.”

He pauses his pacing to shoot her a death glare. “Easy for you to say! You didn’t drunkenly marry someone. He’s going to resent me, Stevie. He probably already does! You saw how fast he walked to that bathroom!”

“David, you are being ridiculous. That man could never resent you, if the way he looks at you is any indication.”

“Stevie, you have no idea what you’re talking about! He’s straight. He said so. It’s one of the few things I actually remember from last night.”

Stevie raises her eyebrows at him skeptically and snorts. “Are you sure that’s what he said? He’s about as straight as the rest of us here. He probably ordered a straight liquor.”

“I distinctly remember him saying he’s not gay, Stevie!”

“Oh, do you? Do you distinctly remember that? Because I distinctly remember you being so wasted that you didn’t even remember you got married to him so...”

“Okay, we are not doing this right now! There are more important things to figure out!”

Cassie wiggles the knob on the bathroom door and is relieved to discover Patrick has not locked it. She opens it slowly and sees Patrick lying on his back on the bathroom floor, his phone beside him, and his hands covering his face, his whole body shaking. 

She takes one look at him and calmly says, “Patrick?”

Patrick, not having realized anyone had entered the bathroom with him, removes his hands from his face and tries to hide the fact that he’s shaking.

Cassie sits on the floor beside his feet and says, “Hey, I see what you’re doing and you’re not going to convince me that this isn’t affecting you. You have every right to be freaking out right now. Just tell me how I can help.”

“I don’t know what to do,” Patrick says.

She nods, considering. “A plan, then?”

Patrick’s shaking lessens and he turns his head to look at her. “Yeah. Yeah, I think that would help.”

“Good thing I’m good at planning,” she says, grinning at him. She pulls out her own phone and opens her notes.

She furrows her brow when she discovers there’s a note already open that she doesn’t recognize. She checks when it was made. Last night. Maybe the contents of this will give them at least a little bit of clarity. 

Do you really believe it we’re going to fucking fucking gathering whatever I can ma people because I’m gay and that gives me the power to marry Gabriel and they’re in love probably so we’re Mary Mary we’re on the way baby you’re hot we should get married too this is David Peace hey what kind of name is face are you dessert or is it because it because your skin self feel they said I am vampire movie you’re vampire you’re Edward Cullen do you sparkle is it because you’re gay okay because I want to fuck you and I’m pretty sure they want to fuck to you that’s what you do when you get married did you know that you and me and that seven severally this is a really great idea I’m glad it is so very friendly

Looking at this note perplexes her, but also makes her feel sheepish and she tries very quickly to act like nothing’s bothering her, but it’s too late. Patrick realizes something is off about her and asks,

“Cassie? What did you find? Is it about last night?”

“I, uh, It’s nothing.”

“If it’s about last night, I think I have a right to see it!” Patrick insists.

Wordlessly, Cassie hands over her phone and Patrick looks at it. He groans, feeling sick to his stomach again. 

Cassie averts her eyes as he gets sick again and then Patrick’s rambling. 

“How could I have been so stupid? I never drink that much, ever, and now look at what’s happened! This was such a horrible idea! Why were we all on board with this? How did we even get to the chapel? And more importantly, who even marries people who are clearly that wasted?!”

Cassie’s eyes go wide as she witnesses Patrick starting to spiral into another freakout. 

“I’ll be right back, Patrick,” she says, but she doesn’t think he hears her.

“Stevieeeeeeee,” she calls out and Stevie looks at her. 

“What’s the matter?”

“I made things worse.”

“What? What could you have said to him that would have made him feel worse about this situation?”

Like she had done with Patrick, she silently hands over her phone and Stevie looks at it and gasps.

“Why would you show him this?!” Stevie cries.

“I don’t know, I found it and he asked what I was looking at!”

“So you show him a dog picture and save it for later!” Stevie lifts the phone back up to her eye level and glances at it again. “Also, what even is this, exactly? Who wrote this?”

“Looks like voice to text. My mom uses it all the time and with the way she talks it never knows what she’s saying,” David cuts in. “It’s your phone, maybe you said it.”

Cassie shrugs. “I mean, makes sense, I guess.”

“We should probably all look at our phones, there might be more to help us figure out last night,” David says, and then he groans. “Oh, god. Last night.” He puts his hands over his face and falls back onto the bed, flat on his back.

“Try Patrick again, and please don’t show him anything this time,” Stevie pleads.

Cassie walks back into the bathroom. She’s happy to see that Patrick is no longer freaking out and is instead splashing his face with water by the sink. 

“I’m sorry for freaking you out earlier. I shouldn’t have shown you that.”

“I practically made you do it, it’s not your fault, Cass. I’m sorry for freaking out on you.”

“Please don’t apologize. This is a lot. I can’t imagine what you’re going through. But I’m here to help, for real this time. Let’s help make you a plan.”

Cassie and Patrick sat talking through all the things Patrick wants to get done. High on his list is calling his parents, and also, Rachel--although that one he is a little more worried about--but, most of all, he needs to actually sit down and talk with David. His husband. That thought stirs in him a sort of excited nervousness. 

Patrick tries to stand up and Cassie extends a hand, helping him. He feels a bit better now that he’s vomited, but his head is still pounding and the added stress of this whole mess is surely not helping. 

They exit the bathroom together and Patrick looks up, seeing David sitting on the bed with his head in his hands. Patrick sits next to David on the bed and David looks up. The two sit there just looking at each other for a little bit and saying nothing.

Stevie clears her throat and links arms with Cassie.

“Babe, I think maybe we should go try to locate some food while these two talk, okay?”

“Sounds good,” Cassie says, placing a kiss on Stevie’s cheek, and then the two of them left the room. 

The door closes and again, they’re sitting in silence. David clears his throat and tries to speak, but nothing comes out. He starts to apologize, but it seems Patrick has the same plan because as he starts talking, Patrick does as well.

They look at each other and David gestures to him that he can go ahead. 

“So, uh, we got married,” Patrick says as he lets out a small, humorless laugh.

“Yeah, normal people go and take a hundred bad drunk selfies or draw dicks on their faces. Apparently, we get drunk and get married.”

“That’ll teach me to partake of that much in the future. Sure, I drank a lot of whiskey, but I really think it was the apple that did me in. I guess I learned nothing from Snow White.”

His goal in saying that was to get David to laugh, but it didn’t look like David had even heard what he said, he was staring off into space. 

Patrick places his hand on top of David’s which gets David to look back at him.

“I’m sorry, did you say something? I’m just really freaking out here, but I don’t want you to worry about anything, okay? I’ll take care of this. You won’t have to be married to me for very much longer. My dad has really good lawyers. Once I call them and get this situation all cleared up, you’ll be free of me.” 

Patrick opens his mouth to reply, but is interrupted by his phone ringing.

“It’s Rachel. I need to answer this.” 

Patrick stands up, walking into the ensuite living room, and closing the door behind him, before answering the phone.

“Hey, Patrick. I’m sorry if this is a bad time. I can call back later.”

“No, Rach, it’s okay. I’m sorry I didn’t call you, it’s been a busy morning.”

“So, umm, this was it, wasn’t it? Why things never worked between us?”

“Yeah,” Patrick says softly. “Yeah, I think it was. But I swear I didn’t purposefully keep this from you. I just, as strange as it might sound, I didn’t know. Not until…” he trails off.

“Not until you met him? David?”

“Yeah. Rachel, I need you to know that I was not cheating on you. Believe me, I know how this looks, but I was always faithful to you.” 

“Patrick, I would never think that!”

While Patrick is in the other room, David tries very hard to work up the courage to call his father. He knows he needs help, but he is not looking forward to the lecture he will inevitably receive.

He’s about to press call when he hears Patrick insist to someone named Rachel that he was not cheating on her. Hearing it, his stomach sinks down somewhere below the floorboards. He’d already known he really screwed things up for Patrick, but knowing that he had a girlfriend was worse. He’d not only ruined things for Patrick, but also for this Rachel person.

David hopes to be able to fix things for Patrick right away. God knows he’s the last person anyone should be stuck being married to. He certainly wouldn’t want to be married to himself.

It was just his luck that he would drunkenly marry a straight guy, as if his life needed any added drama. 

David takes a deep breath and presses the number to call his dad. If Patrick is brave enough to take the call from his girlfriend after all of this, he can be brave and just get this call with his dad over with.

“Congratulations, son, I saw the news!” Johnny says immediately when he picks up.

David blinks. “What?”

“You got married!” Johnny exclaims. “I mean, I wish I could’ve been there and thrown you a big wedding, but it’s still exciting!”

“Yeah, David, a shotgun wedding is something I would do,” Alexis throws in, and David thinks she almost sounds impressed.

“Am I on speaker? Who else is there?” After a beat, David adds, “Also, it wasn’t shotgun, Alexis!”

“Of course you are, the whole family’s here! Say hi to your mother.”

“Ugh, God!”

“My own son is ma-hahrr-ied and we DIDN’T EVEN KNOW ABOUT IT because my chiLDREN DON’T TELL ME ANYTHING and now I don’t even know! My own son-in-law! And what kind of a mother am I?” Moira wails dramatically, and then screeches.

“She’s happy for you,” Johnny clarifies awkwardly to David, and David rolls his eyes at his mother’s antics.

“David! David, you simply must bring this Patronus of yours to meet us!” Moira gasps, much louder this time due to being closer to the phone, and from experience David knows she’s rushed forward and clasped the phone in both hands like it’s a dying lover.

“It’s Patrick ,” David corrects.

“Yes, I think that’s a good idea!” Johnny agrees. “Why don’t you bring him to New York?”

“Yeah, I’d actually kind of like to see who would marry you and make sure he doesn’t collect fingernails or only speak in bad movie quotes. I almost married a guy like that once...dodged a bullet with that one,” Alexis throws in.

“Alexis!” Johnny scolds. “We are going to talk about this more later when we are done talking to your brother!” 

“What? I want to meet David’s little Sweetums.”

“It’s Patrick,” David says again exasperatedly. “His name is Patrick, and we had a very long night so we haven’t exactly had a chance to talk about anything yet.”

“Oh! Oooohhh!!” Johnny exclaims, and David inwardly groans in anticipation.

“Oh, my god, no!” David stops him. “We, uh, we met some friends out here so we can’t go to New York.”

“Well, bring them, too, the more the merrier!”

“Wait, how is it that you have at least two friends and a husband that I didn’t know about?” Alexis asks.

“Contrary to popular belief, I know people outside of you, Alexis!”

“How much did you pay them? Did he ask for extra?”

“Burn in a fire,” David throws at her.

“Kids!” Johnny attempts to create peace. “But that’s perfect, David, I was thinking we can have a big celebration when you get home since we missed your actual wedding.”

“You don’t need to go through so much trouble for me,” David protests. He knows he should tell them right now that the marriage is fake, a sham, an annulment waiting to happen. But he can’t get the words to come out.

“Nonsense, son. We’re happy to celebrate you. We’ll see you when you get home. Bye.” Johnny ends the call after David returns the goodbye, thinking that this is the most celebration he’s ever gotten from his family in his life.

He slips his phone into his pocket, breathing a huge sigh of relief and guilt and god-knows-what-else before once again taking a seat on the bed. Patrick enters a few moments later; David assumes he must have just finished his call too.

Maybe it is a really bad idea to do so, but he takes a few moments to look at Patrick—his husband, as Alexis had just pointed out. He figures he might as well get as much use out of that word as he can because soon he will be divorced, not even getting to enjoy the fruits of marriage for very long. And he only had a husband in the first place through drunkenness; it’s not like he’d ever get one for real. Or a spouse at all for that matter.

Stressed look aside, Patrick really is a very beautiful man. David figures that if they’re technically married, that means he’s allowed to look, at least for now. He’s his husband, after all.

Husband. David rattles the word in his mind. It’s a nice fantasy, even as he knows no one would ever want to call him by that word. Patrick, though, looks like someone’s husband. Like Rachel’s husband, not David’s.

David notices Patrick take a deep breath and then immediately come towards him, taking a seat on the bed beside him. He rests his hand on David’s shoulder and his other hand takes one of David’s in his own. David sucks in a breath, not having expected Patrick to do that.

The hand on his shoulder moves down to the middle of his back and he starts to rub circles, soothing him.

This isn’t right . David thinks. I’m the one who should be soothing him, not the other way around. 

"I know we didn’t get to talk much earlier, sorry about that, and even when we did talk, it was about what to do, not so much how we are feeling, so I wanted to ask, how are you holding up?”

Patrick looks so sincere asking that question and he speaks in such a gentle, sweet tone it almost makes David want to cry. Here is a man so clearly stressed out, but did that matter to him? No. Instead he checks in with David to make sure he’s okay. 

David has to look away from him and take a moment to regroup, but soon enough, he’s looking back into Patrick’s eyes. Eyes that a few moments ago had been filled with tension and fear, now full of genuine concern. 

Looking into those eyes, David actually feels like he could cry. Nobody has ever once put him first in weird situations like this one. Not that he’s been in many situations like this one, but people were usually game to take his money and whatever else he could offer them, and then not stick around to help him clean up any messes afterwards.

“I’m sorry,” David says again. “I know this is hard for you, and I promise I’ll get it all fixed soon. You never have to see me again after this, and the media can deal with themselves.”

“David, I don’t know why you are acting like you caused this all by yourself. I got super drunk as well. We both ended up in this situation and we’ll deal with it together, okay? I’m not just gonna leave you in the lurch to deal with everything yourself.”

David has a hard time looking at Patrick as he says this because he just knows if he looks into those sweet brown eyes that he will cry and he can’t cry in front of Patrick right now. How pathetic would that be? 

Instead, he raises a hand to his head, gently massaging his forehead, hoping that will help satiate the persistent headache he just now noticed he has. With the excitement, shock, and adrenaline of this morning’s events, his hangover was cast to the side, but it is back with a vengeance now, making its presence known to David in a big way. 

Patrick seems to notice the way he is rubbing his forehead and quickly gets up, looking around the room for any painkillers they might have. It takes him a minute, but he remembers that he has some in his suitcase. He grabs the bottle and then runs to the sink to get some water for David and brings it back to him. 

David accepts it gratefully, but looks at him in confusion. 

“How are you not dying? I think you had more to drink than me. That’s what I’ve heard anyway.”

“I guess I’ve just had other things on my mind.”

“Marriage stuff? Or other stuff?”

“Well,” Patrick starts, looking down at his shoes, unable to look David in the eyes. “I had kind of a crazy thought. I don’t know if you’ll be on board with it, but it might save us some headaches right away.”

“Oh?” David asks, glancing at him curiously. “Well, color me intrigued.”

“You’re worried about the media affecting your family’s image, right? And I, well, I’m too embarrassed to tell my parents and my ex that this was a drunken mistake, so umm,” he clears his throat and continues, “what if we don’t get divorced right away? What if we pretend this was our intention all along and then get divorced down the line when the attention has died down and we just say it fizzled out?” 

Ex? David attempts to not get too excited upon hearing Patrick’s usage of that one little word. After all, even if the man is single—well, not legally, but still—it doesn’t mean he would want David, but he has to admit the tiniest amount of hope starts to blossom in the pit of his stomach. (He tries to ignore the idea that Rachel may only be a recent ex because of him.)

“You don’t have to decide right away. In fact, it’s probably better that you sleep on it,” Patrick says, noticing the yawn David tries very hard to conceal. “It’s a big decision and one that’s probably better off being made not hungover.”

Patrick does not have to tell David to get some sleep twice. His exhausted, hungover body is practically begging for him to get some rest. 

“What about you?” David murmurs, already under the covers and half-asleep. 

“I have some work I need to get done.”

“Come on, Patrick, you could use the rest too. It’s like you said, we’re in this together so come sleep with me.”

Patrick pulled away reluctantly. As much as he wanted to go further, all of this was extremely new to him, and even in his extremely intoxicated state, he knew that his first time being intimate with a man is a memory that should be saved for a time he could remember it better, savor it better.

He looked at David’s face, seeing his eyebrows furrowed as if to ask him what was wrong without using words, and said, “As much as I would like you to sleep with me, I...I just can’t tonight, okay? We’re too drunk and it’s too important.”

Patrick bites back a laugh, knowing his incoherent husband would be embarrassed if he had realized what he had just said to him. Sleep does sound very appealing to him and the bed is calling his name, but ultimately what wins him over is the sight of David drifting off so peacefully. It would be just cruel to ignore the pleas of a very sleepy David.

He slides into bed beside him and the last thing he remembers before falling asleep himself is David tugging him just a little bit closer.

***

“How can you be drinking?” Patrick asks, staring at Stevie sipping at the free wine samples they’d been offered at dinner, which everybody else had turned down.

“It’s wine,” Stevie says in a well, duh voice, low and gravelly like her throat is sandpaper.

Patrick blinks at her. “Oh, is it? I hadn’t realized having wine was now considered not drinking.”

“The ancient Romans drank it instead of water,” Stevie protests in an attempt to defend herself.

“Yeah, and?”

“So it’s okay to drink wine,” Stevie explains, leaning forward and brandishing her arm out to illustrate her point. “It’s barely even drinking.”

“Can’t argue with that logic,” Patrick concedes, trying not to laugh. Stevie nods appreciatively and takes another sip of her wine.

David makes a face at her, a grimace, and Stevie turns to him and takes a big swig of her wine.

“What’s the matter, David? Not drinking tonight?”

David scowls and says, sipping at his water, “Electrocute yourself.”

“Don’t tell me what you and Patrick are into.”

Even though he and Patrick had napped for a good chunk of the day, David was still feeling pretty lousy. This was not helped by the fact that Stevie and Cassie had loudly woken them up with Stevie insisting they get out of the hotel suite and go out to eat.

David had really enjoyed the time, as short as it had been, when his three new friends—one being his new husband, but he needed to not dwell on that fact—had not known about who he was, but with the news coverage this morning, if they didn’t know before, they certainly did now.

This is why David’s legs had turned to jelly and his mouth became dry when Stevie had suggested they go out to dinner. They would, of course, expect him to foot the bill. And the friends he had delusionally pretended, and maybe even hoped, liked him just for him would be no more, instead only caring about his money like everyone else.

He was surprised, then, to see her waving around a fat stack of cash. 

“Wear something nice, we’re going to Hugo’s Cellar.”

Patrick quickly slides out of bed and stretches, looking around for something nice to wear. Upon getting a look at his reflection in the mirror, immediately tries to smooth out the piece of hair that was pointed towards the sky. David ignores her completely, opting instead to lay his head back down on the pillow. 

This was, evidently, the wrong move because before he fully knows what’s happening, Stevie and Cassie each grab onto one of his legs, pulling and then dropping him until he had crashed on the ground. 

“We’re leaving in fifteen minutes. Get your shit together. Hugo’s Cellar.”

“Are we supposed to know what that is?”

Stevie rolls her eyes. “I dunno, fancy restaurant. I’d say your kind of thing, but might not be hoity-toity enough for you. No hand-picked caviar from fish who were told they were loved and raised by blind Tibetan silent monks in a magic stream on a mountain.”

“Ha ha. You think you’re funny.”

“Oh, I know I’m funny.”

David knows he should just try to lighten up a bit and enjoy dinner, but his mind is full of thoughts of the events of the past twenty-four hours. Most particularly, he’s thinking about Patrick’s offer for them to stay married.

On one hand, Patrick is right, it would save them a lot of trouble, but on the other hand, David feels nervous at the prospect of Patrick staying married to him when he deserves to be with someone he had fully intended to marry and not just because he was thrown into it. 

David thinks back on Patrick’s words from before they took a nap. I’m too embarrassed to tell my parents and my ex that this was a drunken mistake . Patrick isn’t gay; being married to a man, to himself, embarrasses him and he hates the fact that he put Patrick in this position.

He’s aware that Patrick told him he’s not entirely to blame, but Patrick is being too nice about this. He had thought Patrick was cute, he had allowed himself to flirt with him, thinking he would never see him again, and so it absolutely was his fault. And he is having a hard time forgiving himself for that.

Patrick notices that David is being awfully quiet at dinner. He wonders if it’s just that he still isn’t feeling well or if something else is going on. Stevie makes one of her typical—well, as typical as he can assume when he has known her for a very short time—teasing comments and David throws one back, but there seems to be an edge to his tone that screams that something is off.

Patrick remembers the proposition he suggested to David before they napped and worries that he had made David uncomfortable. They really needed to talk, but they couldn’t do that with Stevie and Cassie around. Patrick decides he’ll wait for an opportunity to present itself, and soon enough, it does.

They think they’re being slick, Cassie looking at Stevie and signalling with a slight tilt of her head to meet her in the bathroom, but Patrick knows what they are up to. Cassie leaves the table, announcing her sudden and urgent need to pee. Stevie waits not even two minutes before declaring that she also has to pee and scurrying off towards the bathroom herself. 

This works out perfectly for Patrick who turns to David and says, “Hey, about what I said earlier, if I made you uncomfortable, I’m so sorry. That wasn’t my intention. I was just trying to help.”

David visibly startles at this. He starts to shake his head, trying, but failing to get words out. Eventually he manages to spit out, 

“No, you didn’t make me uncomfortable. I just, umm, well, I was worried about you.”

It’s Patrick’s turn to look startled. “Worried about me? Why?”

“Well, it’s just, umm, I’m not exactly the best person to be with image-wise and I wouldn’t want to hold you back from your life, or your ex, or...” David trails off, not able to look Patrick in the eyes.

“Rachel? You’re worried about me and Rachel?”

David nods. “I heard part of your phone call with her. And then you said she was your ex so I was afraid that maybe she broke up with you because of me.”

Patrick starts to shake his head even before David finishes speaking. “No, no, David, you have this all wrong. We broke up before I came here to Las Vegas. That’s why I was at the bar last night.”

Last night. The night the two of them got married. With all the drama brought about by waking up and finding himself suddenly married when just yesterday, he had not been—actually meeting and talking to Patrick had escaped his mind. But now that he mentions it, he does vaguely recall a bit of their conversation.

“And as for holding me back from my life? You couldn’t possibly do that. I’m working a boring office job that fulfills me only in the way that it pays the bills.”

Hearing this makes David remember what his dad said, about bringing everyone to New York.

“If we do this, umm, stay married, I mean—which I’m not totally sure of yet by the way—my dad said he wants me to bring you to New York. He, well, my whole family, really, they want to meet you.” David grabs his straw and twirls it around in his glass, looking anywhere but at Patrick, wishing the ground would open and swallow him whole right there.

“New York?”

“Yeah, that’s where I’m from. And I understand if that’s not something you want to do, I mean, like you said, you have a job and everything and it’s not fair of me to ask you to uproot your entire life—”

Patrick thinks about this, weighing it in his mind. He and Rachel are over, she told him not to come back, so he has no place to live. His job is dull and unsatisfying, and he has all the vacation time in the world built up because he hardly ever got sick, never took time off, and worked extra whenever he fancied, especially during the times he and Rachel were going through rough patches.

And Patrick has never been to New York and damn it, he thinks it just might be time for him to live a little.

“I’ll do it. I’ll go. If you’ll have me, that is.” He pauses, taking a second to examine David’s face, which still seems nervous. He takes a deep breath, knowing what he needs to do. “And if you don’t want to stay married, we don’t have to do that. I can still go to New York with you, put up appearances or what have you, and then we can sign divorce papers there, if that’s what you really want.”

Even as the words come out of Patrick’s mouth, he’s hoping David won’t take him up on them. As to why he feels that way, well, that’s something he will have to ponder at a later time. 

David smiles, a tiny half-smile but a smile nevertheless, and says, “Thank you, Patrick.”

It is at this time that Stevie and Cassie return from their tryst, trying and failing to appear nonchalant. They retake their seats and David, appearing to be back to his regular self, asks with false innocence, “Stevie, you seem a little out of breath, what’s wrong? Are you sick?”

Stevie sticks her tongue out at him and David cries, “Eww, no thank you! That’s reserved for your lover!” Stevie responds by waggling her tongue in Cassie’s direction to drive David crazy, as David looks disgusted and Cassie laughs.

Patrick is thrilled to see that the tension in the air has evaporated and everyone seems to be having a good time now. 

He’s excited at the prospect of going to New York with David, even if it’s only for a short time so Patrick can meet the family and then they can meet up with a divorce attorney. But Patrick comes to the conclusion that he’d rather have that little time to get to know David than no time with him at all. He is pulled from his thoughts when he hears David mention New York.

“So, I spoke with my dad today—well, I tried to speak with my dad, but it ended up being my whole family on speaker—but anyway, he told me to bring you all to New York, so Stevie, Cassie, is that something you would be interested in?”

Patrick doesn’t even begin to know how to describe the ache he feels in his stomach at David’s words. It was probably stupid to assume that it would only be himself and David going to New York, but he had kind of hoped it would be.

Stevie’s eyes light up upon hearing David’s question, but Cassie seems more reserved. 

“David, that sounds amazing! When would we leave?” Stevie asks, a little loudly for such a fancy setting. 

“I have my job, I can’t just leave here,” says Cassie quietly, nervously.

David and Patrick try their hardest to engage in their own conversation while Cassie and Stevie whisper with each other out of respect for their privacy.

David bringing up talking to his family makes Patrick feel dreadfully guilty. His parents had sent such sweet, thoughtful texts, and he just hadn’t responded to them. He knew he should call them, but he was terrified of what he would say, of what they would say, or how they might see him differently. 

Here he was, having married a man, and to them, it must look like he had harbored a great secret from them. It occurs to him, now that he's thinking of it, that he had though, without even knowing it himself.

David places a hand on his shoulder and looks at him questioningly.

“Are you alright?”

“Yeah, I’m just thinking about what I’m going to say to my parents. I still need to call them.”

David sees the tense look on Patrick’s face and once again wonders how he could have caused so much trouble for this gorgeous man who did nothing to deserve it. God, David Rose just wreaked havoc wherever he went, didn’t he? He hates the burden his presence has put onto Patrick’s shoulders. 

The arrival of their food couldn’t have come at a better time. It provided a distraction from David’s anxious thoughts, relentlessly swirling around in his head. 

For the most part, it is quiet while they are eating, but at one point during the meal, Stevie and Cassie share a look and Cassie nods at Stevie before she starts to speak.

“So, we’ve reached a solution, David. I will fly out with you and Patrick to New York and Cassie will meet us later, after she gives them some notice. She still has vacation days to use so it won’t be much, but they’ve kinda screwed her anyway so fuck them.” 

“Okay, so then I’m ordering three tickets then? Are we all okay with leaving tomorrow night?”

“Woah, woah, woah, who said you’re ordering the tickets? I can pay for myself and Cassie, David. It’s my scaggy relative’s money anyway. You just have to pay for your husband cause you know, what’s yours is his and all that.”

“You don’t even have to pay for mine, actually, I can get it,” Patrick throws in.

David feels hot tears prick behind his eyes because he’s never had friends before that don’t just expect him to pay for things, but he blinks them back. He allows himself to relax and simply enjoy the rest of his meal with his three new friends.

They finish up their meal, Stevie groaning that she ate too much, and then when the waiter comes by with the check, she reaches for it and immediately pays it, shutting down the rest of their offers to pay their own way. 

Her card returned and the receipt signed, Stevie stands up, Cassie following her lead, and the two of them head towards the door with David and Patrick closely behind them. As they exit the restaurant, they are blindsided by a camera flash and David huffs.

He mutters under his breath, “Of fucking course this is happening.”

The paparazzo steps out in front of them, camera in hand, snapping all the while. He approaches them, shoving a mic in Patrick’s face while asking him multiple questions. 

“What’s it like to be married to David Rose? How did you two meet? What does your family think of the marriage? Are you worried about marrying a notorious playboy?”

Patrick’s eyes widen, not used to having someone snapping photos of him and screaming questions in his face. 

David whispers to him. “You don’t have to say anything. If you do, he’ll probably just ask more. Let’s just call an Uber and try to dodge this guy before heading back to the hotel, okay?”

Patrick nods and says nothing. They keep trying to walk away from the man, but he keeps following them. David whips out his phone and calls them an Uber calmly, having been in this situation many times before. He worries about Patrick being overwhelmed and he’s also hating himself once again for getting Patrick into this mess. 

“Patrick, Patrick, did you take his last name? Did you marry him just for his family’s money?” 

This last question gets Patrick to stop walking and look up at the guy. His face, he’s sure, is bright red and he’s fuming. Anyone who makes a living off harassing people and trying to get a rise out of them disgusts him. The audacity, the sheer nerve of paparazzi.

The guy seems to notice this and once again, shoves his microphone into his face. 

He notices David tense up as he opens his mouth to speak.

“My connection with David was instantaneous,” Patrick starts, wanting to laugh. If only the guy knew how very little Patrick actually remembered of their “instant connection.” He takes a short inhale and tries to veer closer to the truth so he’ll be believable. “We get along really well and it’s like I’ve known him my whole life.”

He notices David staring at him, a mixture of confusion and amazement dawning his face.

“As for your accusations that I married David for his family’s money, I have to say that they are borderline slanderous. I love David and the decision to marry him was the easiest decision I’ve made in my life.” 

David’s mouth drops open, but realizing where he is and that this may appear suspicious, he quickly closes his mouth and tries to regain some semblance of composure. Patrick is good at this. 

David quickly finds that he wants what Patrick is saying to be real. He wishes with all of his heart that it was, a dangerous game to play when every other person he’s ever wished for has abandoned him for someone hotter, someone who doesn’t crave love more than they crave water when they’re thirsty, someone who’s interesting and without a doubt, not David Rose. 

Because he’s been through all this before. It doesn’t matter how much he gives of himself, people never stick around. He could have all the money in the world and it wouldn’t be enough to get people to stay because at the end of the day, he’s still David Rose and all the money in the world isn’t adequate to entice someone to put up with that forever. 

Stevie notices both how Patrick looks like he’s going to choke out the paparazzo and the inner turmoil David’s having, displayed through his facial expressions, and decides to step in. 

Stevie gets right in the guy’s face and starts snapping her own photos with the camera on her phone. 

“How do you like it, Mr. Man? If you want to talk to anyone, you should be talking to me, I’m David’s best friend, after all.”

The man sticks his microphone up to Stevie’s mouth and asks, 

“Were you at the wedding? How was it?”

She leans in conspiratorially, a smirk planted on her face, and says,

“I’ll say this once and once only. My daddy’s a lawyer. If you don’t back the hell away from us, I’ll have your ass sued faster than you can say ‘polly want a cracker.’ I have all the photographic proof I need of your harassment. Now scram, sicko!”

The guy glares at her, but runs away nevertheless and David looks at Stevie in amazement.

“Stevie, I have never seen someone give up so easily like that! That was incredible! Also, your dad’s a lawyer?”

“Nope,” she says delightedly. “I made all that shit up. I never knew my dad, but from what I heard, he was an ass.”

“You should be an actress, babe! You’d be a star,” Cassie says, leaning in to kiss her.

Stevie kisses her back enthusiastically and then turns to look at Patrick who still hasn’t said anything since she chased the guy off. 

He’s shaking, but not from nerves. From anger. It’s a look she knows all too well, being a person who’s dealt with a lot of anger herself. 

She makes eye contact with David and gestures with her eyes that he should do something. It’s strange how in such a short time, they speak a language with each other, through gestures and movements, only understood by the other.

David blinks frantically, asking her what he should do, and she raises her eyebrows and tilts her head subtly towards him.

David clears his throat and puts his arm around Patrick, pulling him in closer in a sort of awkward side-hug he’s sure Stevie will give him shit for later, but it seems to help calm Patrick down as he visibly relaxes, taking a deep breath.

“That was amazing, what you did there.”

“I’m sorry, David.”

“For what?” David looks at him, confused. Here it is, the part where he rescinds everything he just said and tells David his life had been better without him in it. 

“I know you told me not to say anything, but he just got to me.”

David sighs, hoping Patrick is too distracted to see how relieved what he has just told him makes him feel. He rubs his back and says gently, “They have a tendency to do that and this is all very new for you. I’m not upset with you, not at all.”

Patrick smiles at him and opens his mouth to say something when Stevie interrupts, “Is that our Uber?”

David pulls away from him to walk towards the vehicle and Patrick shivers at the absence of his touch. It was a chilly night after all, which was definitely why he had shivered.

Because there are four of them, one person has to sit up front while the other three pile into the back. Patrick can see just how much the thought of him having to sit up front disturbs David so he offers to sit there, not wanting to split Stevie and Cassie up, who are busy staring lovingly into each other’s eyes. 

Things are so simple for them, so effortless, Patrick thinks. They met the same night he and David did, but Patrick has to admit how envious he is of them. They don’t have to worry about paparazzi or meeting each other’s families right away. This thought makes his stomach turn. Oh yeah; he would be meeting the Roses tomorrow.

***

They get back to the suite and immediately Stevie and Cassie start packing up the small amount of things they have. David looks at them and shakes his head, demonstrating just how confused their actions are making him.

“Where are you going? We aren’t leaving until tomorrow night.”

“Oh yeah, we know,” Stevie replies. “But I have a room at this hotel too, David, and me and my girl need to get some good use out of it, if you know what I mean.”

David gawks at them and Stevie says, “For sex. We’re gonna have sex. We figured that’d be something we’d be better off going to our own room for.”

"Oh MY GOD,” David says. “I know what you meant!! Go, go already!” using his arms to shoo them from the room. 

Before leaving the room, Stevie gets close to him and whispers, “Maybe you ought to follow our lead. You know, in your marriage bed and all.” She winks and then skips away happily.

He really hopes Patrick didn’t hear what Stevie whispered to him.

It’s quiet in the room now that Stevie and Cassie have left, both men lost in their own thoughts. 

Patrick breaks the silence and says, “Well, we have a busy day ahead of us tomorrow, should we try to get some sleep?”

David nods and heads for the bed when he sees Patrick heading for the couch.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m getting ready to sleep...didn’t we just talk about this?”

“No, I mean like why are you getting on the couch.”

“I didn’t want to make you uncomfortable or anything so I just thought I’d sleep over here.”

David begins shaking his head wildly in the way that Patrick has noticed he does when he can’t even begin to express how wrong he thinks something is. Patrick finds it to be exceedingly adorable. 

“Patrick, you’re my husband, drunken mistake or otherwise, you shouldn’t have to do that.”

“David, it’s fine. No one’s forcing me into this.”

David looks at him and says, “If that’s what you’d prefer then by all means, stay there, but I just need you to know that it wouldn’t bother me if you slept in this bed with me. I mean, it’s not like we haven’t done it before.”

He winces, Stevie’s words coming back to him, and realizing how that sounds.

“Slept in the same bed together, I mean,” he blurts out and then, because he talks a lot when he’s nervous, he continues, “That couch would probably not be comfortable anyway and—”

Patrick grins at him and says, “Well, since you insist.”

David stares at him, mouth agape, and Patrick giggles, “I’m kidding, David. Thank you.”

“Well, luckily for you, I have a very giving nature.”

“Oh yes, I’m very aware,” Patrick returns and David could melt right there into a puddle.

Patrick turns out the lights and then joins David, who had already gotten into the bed. 

“Good night, David,” he whispers.

“Good night, Patrick.”

It’s silent for a while and Patrick assumes David has drifted off to sleep. He wishes he could, but he is having trouble doing so. No, instead his brain is full of thoughts he’s tried so hard to push down. Specifically, he’s thinking about the memory of him making out with David that pops up into his head more often than he would like to admit.

He’s replaying it over and over in his head when he hears David speak up.

“Patrick?” he whispers. “Are you still awake?”

“Yeah, is something wrong?”

“No, I just can’t sleep. What about you? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, just thinking.”

“What are you thinking about?”

Patrick cannot possibly be more grateful that the lights were off and David can’t see his face. He feels guilty for thinking about making out with David so much for a couple of reasons. First of all, he doesn’t even know if David remembers that that happened and secondly, David isn’t his actual husband. Most likely, they’d be heading to New York to get those divorce papers signed and then Patrick would be off doing well, he’s unsure of what’s next in store for him, but he’ll figure it out. 

That thought saddens him and he realizes he’s taking a really long time to answer David. He quickly tries to think of something he can say that would sound plausible and he settles for an earlier thought he had had.

“I’m a little nervous about meeting your parents.”

“Really? You hide it well. I would have never guessed. You shouldn’t be nervous though, they’ll love you, probably more than they love me.”

“Why do you say that, David?”

David sighs. “It’s not that I think they don’t love me, it’s just, well, we’re not exactly the closest family. Sorry, I didn’t mean to make this about me. We were talking about your anxiety.”

“It’s okay, talking helps me not think about it. Talk more? Please?”

His polite request makes David feel so much for the other man. Not only has Patrick asked him to keep talking—something no one has ever asked of him—but he said that David was helping him by talking. It’s a nice feeling, feeling wanted, needed. Something he wants more and more of, he could get addicted to this feeling.

David laughs. “What do you want me to talk about?”

“Anything. Everything. I just want to hear you talk.”

If David wasn’t falling for this man before—he definitely wasn’t, thank you—he was now and he takes a deep breath to calm himself down and force that thought from his mind entirely.

David struggles to come up with something to talk about that doesn’t have anything to do with things he doesn’t want Patrick to know about himself—most of his exploits involving drugs, exes, etc—or things that had been on his mind—how much he really wants to kiss Patrick or how he’s starting to make him feel. He settles on warning Patrick about how his family will probably act when they meet him.

“I feel I should give you a heads up that when my sister meets you, she will most likely flirt with you. She’s just a naturally flirty person, but she means no harm by it. And my dad will probably talk your ears off about the business. And my mom has a flair for the dramatic. She tends to scream or talk very loudly at intermittent times.”

“Can I be honest? I think I’m most intimidated at the prospect of your sister flirting with me.”

David guffaws, a sound Patrick had yet to hear from him, and it’s the most delightful sound he’s ever heard. The bed shifts a bit and Patrick has no doubt David clapped a hand over his mouth as if that would take back the sound that escapes his mouth. 

“Why do you say that?”

"Well, I’m a business major so the business talk will probably be super interesting to me and within the past twenty-four hours, I woke up married to a very dramatic man, so I think I can handle drama.”

“Name one time I’ve been dramatic!”

“David, you freaked out when you thought a bird that wasn’t even anywhere near you was going to swoop down and peck you on the way to the restaurant earlier.”

“I have a thing about flying creatures.”

“Well, I promise to protect you from all flying creatures.”

“I don’t remember that in our vows,” David chortles.

“Try remembering harder, I think it was definitely there.”

“I wasn’t aware you remembered.”

“I don’t. So maybe we’ll have to redo it.”

David’s heart lurches in seven different directions.

“All for the purpose of flying creature protection, of course,” Patrick adds, grinning.

“It’s more important than you think,” David agrees, smiling back so wide his face hurts.

There’s silence for a while, long enough to have Patrick thinking that maybe David drifted off to sleep, but then he asks, “Can I ask you something?”

“Of course, David. You can ask me anything.”

He wants to ask why Patrick would be willing to put up with him for longer than necessary, he wants to ask Patrick to kiss him and hold him and never let go, he wants to ask Patrick a whole slew of questions that would most likely be off putting or scare him away.

So instead he asks, “Do you have any fears?”

Patrick blinks, not expecting this question out of all the possible ones he had conjured up in his head.

“Yes, of course.”

“If you don’t mind, can you share one with me? I feel it’s only fair because I told you about my thing with flying creatures.”

Patrick takes a while, pondering which fear of his he feels comfortable confiding.

“I’m always afraid of people misinterpreting my intentions. It’s why I got so mad at that guy earlier. Do you really go through stuff like that all the time?”

“Yeah, but it becomes easier and easier to ignore the more you deal with it.”

“You shouldn’t have to deal with it at all! People shouldn’t be able to get away with that!”

“While I admire your concern, Patrick, it’s really okay. They’re just trying to make a living.”

“Well, I make a living too, and I somehow managed to choose a career that doesn’t involve harassing people. How are you so calm about this?”

“I’ve been in the spotlight since I was a little kid. With my mother the soap star and my father the up-and-coming businessman turned entrepreneurial genius, it was kind of unavoidable. It’s all I’ve known, really.”

Patrick catches a hint of sadness in the last thing David says, but doesn’t comment on it, knowing how hard David was probably trying to make sure it didn’t show through.

He leans in closer to David and his hand brushes against David’s hand which is placed on the bed. Patrick grabs David’s hand in his own and squeezes it, presuming this less direct approach to acknowledging David’s gloom will be more comforting to him than any words he could say. 

It grows quiet between them again and Patrick feels that David is asleep before he hears it, David’s head having fallen onto his shoulder. Patrick can hear soft snores and he’s scared to move even a fraction for fear of startling David awake. He’s glad David is getting some rest. It’s been a long day for the both of them, and if David was as exhausted as he feels— even with the nap from earlier— he deserves to get some rest.

As much as Patrick’s body is craving sleep, his mind is wandering a mile a minute. He needs to call his parents. He just doesn’t know what to say to them —a fear he was too afraid to admit to David. It’s sad, but being right here, in Las Vegas, in this hotel suite, with David feels more right than any singular moment of his eight years with Rachel and the realization astounds him. 

Holy shit, he thinks. I’m really fucking gay. This realization—brought upon by the fact that he’s starting to catch feelings for his fake-but-technically-real-husband—makes for a very complicated situation.

He needs a drink. No, he lectures himself, you do not! This is how you got in this situation in the first place, not that he really has any complaints. Except for the fact that he had proposed they stay married and David Rose had not given him an answer yet.

He’d accept and respect a no, as painful as that might be, but he’s really hoping for a yes. He’s hopeful in a way he’s never ever been before. It’s terrifying, yet thrilling.

***

The next thing Patrick knows, the alarm on his phone that he forgot to turn off is blaring and David is grumbling beside him. When had he fallen asleep? He doesn’t remember doing that. 

It had been a fitful sleep, and all Patrick wants to do is close his eyes again and cuddle up next to David. 

This thought forces him to open his eyes and look at the man sprawled out all over, his head resting on Patrick’s chest and his legs tangled with Patrick’s. Immediately, he remembers the realization he started to come to the night before and he tries not to panic.

He still feels awful and a bit hungover. Either he drank too much the other night or he’s starting to not be able to handle his liquor like he could when he was in college. He closes his eyes again, knowing deep down that he needs to get up and start getting ready to leave town and that closing his eyes without setting his alarm is a dangerous game, but he can’t bring himself to care. He’s too tired and too comfortable lying here with David.

Life has other plans for him evidently because just as he starts to drift back to sleep, there’s a knock on the door. 

David sits up quickly, his arm whacking Patrick in the face. Patrick winces and David turns to look at him. 

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry. The knock startled me, but I didn’t mean to hit you. Are you okay?”

“ ’m fine,” Patrick murmurs, still trying to fully wake up. 

David goes to open the door and Patrick flops back onto the bed. He’s entirely too exhausted to deal with whomever it is.

He doesn’t hear what the person on the other end of the door says, but he’s pretty sure he knows who it is based on David saying, “It’s a little early, don’t you think?”

“Good morning to you, too, my darling friend! And such a lovely morning it is too!” says Stevie who waltzes in and starts to open up the curtains, the bright light shining right in Patrick’s face.

Cassie, of course, is right behind her, and she shoots Patrick an apologetic glance, but then seeing the red mark on Patrick’s face, she asks,

“Patrick, are you okay?”

“Hmm? Oh yeah, when you guys knocked, it startled David and he accidentally nudged me in the face. It hurt at first, but honestly, it probably looks worse than it is.” 

“Let me get you some ice,” Cassie insists and Patrick begs her to let it go, but she refuses.

David hops up, going with her, feeling extremely guilty to have hurt Patrick. 

This leaves Stevie and Patrick in the room. Stevie sits down in front of Patrick on the bed, where Patrick was still lying down. 

“You look like hell,” she says.

“Didn’t sleep well,” Patrick replies, not even able to muster up the energy to retort back.

“Does David snore or something?”

“No, it doesn’t have anything to do with David’s sleeping habits.”

Stevie’s eyes lit up. “But it does have to do with David, doesn’t it?” She slaps his arm and says, “Spill!”

“Ow,” Patrick says pointedly and Stevie shoots him a sheepish grin before saying, “Seriously, Patrick, tell me everything!”

It is so weird how it really feels like Patrick has known Cassie, Stevie, and David forever, even though they only met two nights ago. He wants to tell Stevie, but he’s also nervous to do so, knowing that his thoughts on the subject aren’t fully formed.

Stevie’s simply looking at him the whole time while he’s having this inner turmoil until she finally says, point blank, “You like David.”

“Wh-what?! Why would you say that?”

“Just look at you! You’re so quick to try to deny it, why is that, Patrick? He’s your husband, after all.”

“He doesn’t want to be,” Patrick says, without thinking.

“What do you mean by that?”

At this point, his face is so red, and he opens his mouth to laugh it off when he’s saved from having to answer by Cassie and David re-entering the room. 

“This isn’t over,” Stevie whispers and then hops off the bed.

Cassie starts to put the ice to Patrick’s face, but Stevie says, 

“Babe, I think you should make David do that. It’s his fault Patrick’s hurt, after all.” 

If it’s possible for it to do so, Patrick is sure his face becomes even redder at Stevie’s outburst.

David sits in front of him and he’s sure he can hear just how fast his heart is beating. He gently places the ice wrapped in a paper towel to Patrick’s face and just holds it there. Their faces are so close and Patrick thinks about how easy it would be to just lean in and kiss him. 

This is really not the best time for such thoughts, Patrick, he lectures himself. 

It starts to become too much and he grabs the ice, his own hand brushing against David’s and he says,

“I’m sure your arm is getting tired. You don’t have to do this. I’ve got it.”

“Are you sure? I swear I didn’t mean to—”

“David, of course you didn’t. It’s really okay. I promise,” Patrick reassures him. 

David nods and then turns to the girls, who had taken a seat on the couch.

“So, what, you woke us up early and you didn’t even bring breakfast?!”

“Well, Mr. Grumpy Pants, that’s why we woke you up. We thought maybe we could talk about plans for the day before we leave, and order some room service.”

“Now we’re talking,” David says, grinning.

“I need to take a shower,” Patrick exclaims and gets out of the bed, heading for the bathroom.

“What do you want to eat, Patrick?” Cassie asks him.

“What? Oh, I don’t care. Anything is fine,” he replies before he enters the bathroom, closing the door behind him.

“Is he okay?” David asks, looking at the closed door. He had followed Patrick with his eyes. He doesn’t look so good.

David takes a seat on the edge of the bed.

“He told me he’s really tired,” says Stevie, shrugging. “I think he might still be a little hungover too. His eyes looked really bloodshot.”

“Well, with how much he drank Friday night and how little he’s slept in the past thirty-six hours, that would make sense,” Cassie says.

David and Stevie both stare at her and she asks, “What? I’m a nurse-in-training. I’ve been taking online courses. I only work at the bar to pay for school.”

“How old are you?” David asks and Stevie smacks him in the arm.

“Sorry, let me rephrase. You seem like you’re around our age and we’re a little above school age.”

Cassie laughs. “It’s okay, David, I’m not offended. I didn’t immediately go to college after high school because I didn’t really know what I wanted to do, but about a year ago, I decided I really wanted to pursue nursing so that’s what I’m doing now!”

Stevie leans in for a peck and David pulls out a menu so they can start figuring out what to eat. 

“He’s gonna be okay though, right?” David asks, after they ordered their breakfast.

“Oh yeah, he’ll be fine. Hangovers vary from person-to-person and some unfortunate people get really killer ones that can last for days sometimes. He should probably try to take it easy today before your flight tonight.”

David nods, still looking nervous.

“David, I promise, he’s gonna be just fine. I wouldn’t lie to you, okay?”

David wants to believe her, but he couldn’t even begin to count how many people had told him the same thing, only for them to turn around and do exactly that, or cheat, or steal from him, etc. 

“He’s hungover, David, not dying,” Stevie chimes in, unhelpfully.

David glares at her and Cassie puts her hand on Stevie’s shoulder.

“Babe, maybe you should lay off him. He’s had a stressful couple of days.”

“Fine,” Stevie says and this surprises David. She doesn’t seem the type to give in so easily, but maybe that’s what being in love does to people.

He hates to admit it, even to himself, and he will deny it if anyone were to ask him about it, but Stevie and Cassie really are sweet together. They’re the kind of couple that David’s always admired: a perfect balance of sassy and sweet. 

Patrick is sweet , his brain unhelpfully supplies. 

There’s a knock at the door then and David jumps up. “I’ll get it!”

Once he tips the staff member, he rolls the food cart in between the couch and the bed so each of them are within reach of the food.  They start digging in just as Patrick pads back into the room in only a towel.

David had picked up a piece of toast and was about to take a bite when Patrick walks in, wearing only a towel around his waist; David pauses, staring at Patrick, his hand hovering mid-air in front of his mouth, which was wide open. He quickly recovers and takes a bite. 

“I’m so sorry I’m coming in here like this,” Patrick apologizes. “I stupidly went in there without some different clothes to wear.”

“Oh, don’t worry,” says Stevie. “Cassie and I aren’t even looking and David’s busy enjoying,” she pauses dramatically, “….his toast.” 

David glances over at her menacingly and she just smirks at him, winks, and then takes a bite of her breakfast. 

Patrick grabs his clothes and then exits the room again and Stevie opens her mouth, but David holds up his hand to her. “Not a word, Stevie!”

Even Cassie, the definite nicer one of the pair, is smirking, and David feels very ganged up on.

“It’s a good thing he’s so out of it today, David,” Cassie giggles, “because you couldn’t have been any less subtle.”

“OH-KAY ,” David cries out. “What happened to laying off me?!”

“I’m sorry, David,” Cassie says innocently, “you just make it too easy to not lay off you.” 

“Don’t apologize to him. You know he secretly loves it.”

David huffs, refusing to admit she’s right and hating but also loving that she seems to see right through him already, and then the three of them eat in silence for a bit. Patrick re-enters the room, fully dressed this time, and takes a seat beside David on the bed. He reaches for some food and starts eating ravenously. 

“Feeling better?” Cassie asks him.

“A bit,” he answers, in between bites.

“Good, I’m glad. Do you all mind if I turn to the weather channel? I want to see what the forecast is for tonight. I heard it’s supposed to storm and that would not be good for your flight.”

“Go ahead,” says David, and Patrick and Stevie both nod in agreement. 

Cassie turns on the TV and is about to switch the channel when Stevie stops her. 

“Unbelievable!” she yells. “This is probably the work of that asshole from last night!”

“This” turns out to be a story about how David and his husband were not wearing wedding bands when spotted leaving dinner last night. The commentators are debating if this already spells trouble for the oldest Rose child’s marriage or not. 

The people arguing against there being a problem cite Patrick’s words from last night as their proof.

“Does that sound like something someone would say if they were split from their partner?”

“It does if they’re putting on an act and trying to make it seem like nothing’s wrong,” a person from the other side of the debate chimes in.

“Ugh, please shut this off,” David implores and Cassie does as he requested.

“We’re literally going to see my parents tonight! We can’t show up without rings! They’ll be so suspicious!”

A quick google search tells them that Del Prado Jewelers is pretty close to their hotel so once they finish up their breakfast, David and Patrick part ways with Stevie and head that way to pick out rings for each other. 

They walk inside and an employee named Rebecca greets them right away. She asks what she can do for them and Patrick says, “This might be an unusual request, but my husband and I recently got married, but we still want to pick out rings for each other. We’re just kinda doing it in a different order,” he chuckles awkwardly and Rebecca smiles at him. 

“That’s not unusual at all! I can help you with that! Did you have any particular styles in mind?”

"Can we confer a minute, Rebecca?”

“Of course, just let me know when you’re ready!”

Patrick turns to David and says, “How do you want to do this? Should we just pick out our own or?”

“How about we pick out each other’s?”

“It would certainly make for a cute story,” Patrick says, smiling. 

“That it would.”

Patrick calls Rebecca over and tells her the plan. Rebecca pulls out the ring sizer and helps both of them figure out which size of ring the other is. After that is all figured out, Rebecca then gets a coworker to help David while she helps Patrick.

“You two make a cute couple. How long have you been together?”

“Not very long, actually. Some might say we rushed into our marriage, but we don’t care what they think.”

Patrick realizes this isn’t an exact truth, but he would probably have to get used to those since the two of them didn’t exactly want to go around proclaiming that they were practical strangers who had a few too many and ended up hitched. 

“Well, that’s a good attitude to have, honestly. As long as you two are happy, that’s all that should matter!”

As they are talking, Rebecca shows him a variety of styles of rings. It’s honestly overwhelming. He knows enough about David in the short amount of time they’ve been acquainted to know that picking out a ring for him would not and should not be something he half-asses. 

Looking over all of his options, he sees a gold ring similar to the silver ones he noticed David wearing one of the many times his attention was drawn to his hands while he was gesticulating. Suddenly, he knows exactly what he wants David to wear on his left hand.

“Rebecca, that one there,” he says, pointing to the gold ring and lowering his voice on the off chance David could hear him. “Is there any way you have four of those in stock? David wears four silver ones on his hand that look just like that one and so I want those to be his wedding rings.”

“Awww, that’s so thoughtful of you! I’m sure he’ll love them! I can check for you, but I kinda doubt it, to be honest. We can always special order them for you if you would want.”

“Yeah if you would check, that would be great. We’re not from around here, and it’s kind of a weird story, but we’re actually headed to his parents’ house in New York and I’ve never met them and I don’t really know the address.”

Rebecca nods and goes to check for him. She returns shortly and says, apologetically, “I’m sorry, unfortunately, we don’t have four of those in his size. We just have one, but we could special order the other three or get them resized, but it would take a few weeks.”

Patrick nods, thinking it over, and then decides. “Yeah, I think I will take this one and then order the others to his parent’s house. I’ll just have to get creative with how to procure that information.”

“You said he’s from New York, right? We could just ship them to our location there. Where in New York, do you know?”

“Upper East Side, I think.”

“Okay, it won’t be too far of a journey for you then! Ours is in Midtown,” she says. “This way, the other three can be a surprise.”

David comes up beside him as Rebecca is ringing him up.

“Hey, no peeking! I didn’t come up to try to get a sneak preview when you were finishing up so why don’t you just wait over there?”

David pouts, but Patrick puts his hands on his shoulders and whispers, “I’m almost done, okay? So if you wait over there, you can pick wherever we go to lunch.”

David seems content with this answer and waits by the door as requested.

Pretty soon, Patrick is ready to go as well and as they are leaving, he asks David, “So, what did you decide on?”

“There’s a pizzeria near here called Evel Pie, but based on the description, it is not aesthetically on brand for me.”

“Oh, right. There’s nothing worse than that,” Patrick says teasingly. 

“It’s very important, Patrick!”

“Okay, okay, well then what do you want?”

“I really wanted pizza though!”

“Well, do you think you’ll live if we enter Evel Pie or will you drop dead from the sheer horror?” 

“Unclear, unclear if I will live.”

“You can do this, David. I’ll be with you every step of the way.”

David rolls his eyes, but works very hard to conceal the smile that’s threatening to show. 

Despite his objections to the decor and overall feel of the place, the pizza turns out to be good enough to have made it worth it. After lunch, on their way back to their hotel, they spot a Walgreens and Patrick says, “I need to grab something for the flight, can we stop in here for a second?”

Patrick grabs sunflower seeds for his snack and David grabs a ton of candy, insisting Patrick’s choice of snacks for the flight is incorrect. Patrick just smiles fondly at David and tells him to put the candy with his item and David lights up.

They get back to the hotel and start gathering their things so they can pack. Cassie had offered to drive them all to the airport since she’s staying behind for about a week.

Stevie and Cassie had gone back to their room and once again, David and Patrick were alone. 

Patrick notices David looking at him excitedly and he asks, “What’s going on?”

“Can I show you the ring I got you now?”

“Oh yeah, we can exchange rings now, that’s fine.”

“Patrick, try to have a little more enthusiasm about this then just it being ‘fine’!”

“Sorry, sorry, yes, David, let’s exchange rings now!” Patrick says in an overly-excited tone. 

“I know you’re making fun of me, but that’s still more like it! I’m just really excited to show you yours! I love shopping!”

David hands him a ring box and he opens it. Inside is a silver ring made of tungsten with a strip of sapphire down the center, and Patrick has to admit, it’s perfect. He’s never really thought about what kind of wedding ring he would want, even when he was very briefly engaged, but he knows instinctively this is the perfect choice for him. 

“What do you think?” David asks eagerly.

Patrick slips it on his left ring finger and says, “David, I love it. Thank you!” He pulls out the ring box holding David’s ring and says nervously, “I hope you like yours.”

David opens the box and gasps. “Patrick, how did you? Oh my god, this is perfect! It’s just like my silver ones!”

“So you like it then?”

“Like it? I love it! You did such a great job with this!”

Patrick blushes and says, “Well, I just took notice of your other rings and then saw that one and felt like it was right.”

“It absolutely is!”

After all of the excitement of today, Patrick wishes he had time to crawl into the extremely enticing bed too near him, but he knows he can just sleep on the plane, so he keeps busy to stay awake. While packing his work laptop, Patrick realizes he never spoke to his boss and he gasps.

“Are you okay, Patrick?”

Patrick whips out his phone and hits the call button immediately. He knows it’s Sunday, a day people often use to spend time with their families, and he feels guilty for calling like this, but he needs to talk to her. 

Luckily, his boss is quite fond of him and so she picks up practically as soon as he dials. He knows his boss won’t care about the fact that he’s married to a man—she’s talked before of her gay brother whom she loves more than anything—but he still finds himself nervous at the prospect of having to ask for time off after the fact, instead of before, like most people.

“Patrick, honey, I saw on the news that congratulations are in order! Why didn’t you tell me about your famous boyfriend before?”

“I, uh, I don’t like to brag,” he says tensely. “And the marriage was kind of a spur of the moment thing, very impulsive,” he continues. 

“I thought you were dating that sweet Rachel girl? What happened to her? You usually tell me about big changes like this.”

Oh god, oh god. Patrick is freaking out, desperately trying to figure out what to say to her. He hopes she can’t hear how heavy he is breathing.

“I, uh, I was embarrassed we broke up again. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you.”

“Oh, it’s completely okay, dear! You don’t owe me personal details about your life. I just have to say, I saw what you said about your husband! It was so sweet! You two look really good together! Don’t listen to all those people saying you two are clearly having problems just because you aren’t wearing rings. Rings aren’t for everyone.”

“Well, thank you. We do have rings, actually, we just sent them off to get resized and so we didn’t have them last night.”

“Aww, well that’s nice too!”

“Thank you. I’m so sorry to be so unprofessional like this, with everything happening, it escaped my mind to give you a call—”

“Let me guess, you want some time off to spend with your new husband?”

“Yes, please.”

“Of course! How long do you want to take?”

“Could I use three weeks of my vacation time? Or is that too much?”

“It’s not too much at all! In fact, I would like to give you four weeks off! Consider the extra week a wedding gift!”

Patrick couldn’t be more relieved to hear that she’s being so understanding about this. He’s very grateful for her.

“I can’t even begin to express how thankful I am to you for this.”

“Oh stop, none of that! You’re one of the best employees I have, Patrick! I’m gonna let you go now so you can relax! See you in a month!” 

“Yes, see you! Thanks again!”

He hangs up the phone and heaves a huge sigh of relief. David wanders into the room, looking alarmed.

“Patrick? Is everything alright?”

“Yes, everything is great! That was my boss and she was super understanding about my needing time off and so I’m very relieved.”

“She didn’t cause you any trouble, did she?”

“No, she’s not like that.”

Patrick sees David visibly relax and he smiles at him. Now that he’s gotten one potentially difficult phone call out of the way, he knows he should probably bite the bullet and call his parents, but the thought terrifies him and so he decides to put that one off yet again. 

They finish up their packing, chatting idly, and soon enough, Stevie’s knocking on their door again, it being time to go. 

They do a quick sweep of the room with their eyes, making sure they haven’t missed anything, and then they gather their bags—Patrick offering to get one of David’s because he only has one—and then they head for the airport.

***

Stevie and Cassie’s goodbye is hard to watch. Cassie is crying and Stevie’s tearing up, although David knows she would deny such a thing if questioned. Stevie wraps her arms around her and pulls her in close, kissing her passionately, and then she says,  “I’ll see you next week, okay?”

Cassie nods and blows a kiss to her as she, David, and Patrick head inside the airport. 

They head to security, which takes forever, of course, but then, because they are first class, they get to wait to board in the lounge—something Patrick is admittedly excited about as he’s never traveled first class before. 

David whips out his Twizzlers and starts nibbling on one anxiously. Stevie goes to order a drink. Patrick takes a moment to look around. He’s sure he looks like a person who’s never seen snow before, or something akin to that. He’s pulled from his musings when he notices David’s leg bouncing up and down furiously.

“Is something wrong, David?”

“I’m not exactly the easiest flyer,” he says. “I usually take Xanax for flights, but it’s too early to take some and so yeah, I’m a little freaked out right now. I don’t think I’ve ever been on a flight where I haven’t been intoxicated in some form. Well, except for the first ever time I flew as a child. It wasn’t pretty.” 

His eyes widen, as if he hadn’t meant to say any of that, and he practically inhales the rest of his twizzler and then lays his head in his hands on his lap. Patrick scoots closer to him and starts rubbing his shoulder. It had seemed to calm him before, he only hoped it would help this time as well.

“I’m such a mess. Why did I say any of that? You probably think ill of me now.”

“I could never think ill of you, David.”

“Patrick, trust me, you don’t want to play that game.”

“David, trust me , I’m not playing any game. I genuinely mean that.”

“Well then maybe you’re just as crazy as I am.”

Patrick laughs. “Well, I wouldn’t say that.”

David lifts his head up at this remark. “Wow! Just going straight in for the kill then!”

“Nothing about this is straight, David.”

“Why, Patrick Brewer, or I’m sorry, do you prefer Rose,” he says, in a bad imitation of the paparazzo from last night and sticking a fake microphone in his face, “did you just make your first gay joke? I’m proud of you!”

Patrick grabs David’s hand, or rather, the fake microphone, and kisses David’s hand. He’s about to get upset with himself for doing something so rash, so stupid, but when he catches the look on David’s face, it’s worth it. He’s trying so hard not to smile, scrunching up his face and moving his mouth sideways, biting on the inside of his cheek. 

They stare into each other’s eyes for a moment before the spell is broken and Stevie returns. 

Patrick clears his throat and excuses himself to the bathroom. 

“Did I interrupt something here?”

“Nope, no, definitely not.”

“Convincing. Don’t quit your day job, I’m not sure you’re gonna make it as an actor.”

“I act like I actually like you all the time, sure I will.”

“Damn, David, that was a good one! Color me impressed! Seriously, though, what the hell just happened?”

“I don’t know, really. We were just goofing around and he kissed my hand and then—”

“Then?”

“It really looked like he was going to kiss me, but that’s ridiculous.”

“Why is it ridiculous?”

“Stevie, he just broke up with his girlfriend! Just because he’s technically married to me doesn’t mean he actually likes me.”

“A sentence I never thought I’d hear, to be honest. You’re ridiculous alright, but not for the reasons you think.”

“What? What do you mean?”

“I’m not spelling this out for you, David!”

“Well, fine, then, I’ll just check my phone now since I’m currently not talking to you.”

David actually does check his phone and what he sees makes his stomach sink.

[From Sebastien Raine]

Someone actually married you? Wow, what a sucker. It won’t last long though.

He doesn’t even notice that Patrick’s back and so he jumps when he hears his voice.

“Woah, there, everything’s gonna be okay, David! You won’t have to fly alone, okay? I’ll be right there beside you the whole time.”

Patrick is quite possibly the sweetest man David has ever met. He doesn’t get the sweet ones. Because he’s David Rose, and he likes it rough, right? He likes them shallow, dependent, and horny, always horny. Or at least, that’s what the press would lead you to believe.

The time comes for them to board the plane and while they get settled, David’s mind drifts, once again, to Patrick’s offer, as it has been wont to do ever since Patrick had brought it up. Everyone around him thought this marriage was going to fail. It shouldn’t bother him. It’s not real , but it does bother him. Remembering Sebastien’s text leaves a bad taste in his mouth.

Besides, Patrick is, as established, sweet. He’s a good guy. He seems to actually care about him, although he’s not really sure why. And so, more and more, his offer is tempting to him. 

He turns to Patrick, who looks exceedingly comfortable in his big lounge chair, and says,

“Let’s do it. Let’s stay married.”

At this, Patrick smiles widely. “You’re sure about this?”

“Yes.”

Patrick grabs his hand and squeezes it. David then graciously accepts the water he’s handed, and takes his Xanax. 

The two of them talk for a bit until David’s eyes get heavy and he can’t keep them open anymore.

David falls asleep on his shoulder and Patrick moves the cupholder that’s between their seats, knowing leaning on that can’t be comfortable. Once he’s ensured that David seems as comfortable as he can be, Patrick allows sleep to overtake him as well. 

***

Something is aggressively poking him and he wants it, no, needs it to stop, is the first thing Patrick thinks when he regains consciousness. He slowly blinks open his eyes to find Stevie—who’s sitting behind them—jabbing into his shoulder.

“Time to wake up, lover boy, the plane’s gonna land soon.”

“And why doesn’t David get this warm welcome into wakefulness?”

“Because we have unfinished business.”

Patrick looks over at David worriedly, and notices he’s still, thankfully, asleep.

“He’ll be out of it for a while still. Xanax has that effect on people. Don’t worry about it, Patrick,” Stevie says, as if reading his mind. “Now, what did you mean earlier when you said he doesn’t want to be your husband?”

“Oh, that,” Patrick says nervously. “I, uh, was hoping you’d forgotten that.”

“I don’t forget anything, so, spill.”

“Well, at the time, he still hadn’t told me whether or not he wanted to stay married so—”

“Woah, woah, woah, back up. You asked him to stay married to you? Boy, you have it real bad, don’t you?”

“I didn’t do it because I like him, Stevie!”

Stevie shot him a look.

“I didn’t only do it because I like him, Stevie! And I didn’t even realize that I did when it came up, it’s just that, well, we both are kind of embarrassed about this whole thing and so I thought we should take the narrative into our own hands. You know, stay married for a while and then have a very public break-up.”

“And what are you gonna do to repair the broken heart that inevitably comes with that?”

“What are you talking about, Stevie?”

“You are in very dangerous territory, Patrick. Your set, agreed-upon time will sneak up on you, and then what? You’re just gonna let him go?”

“I’ll do whatever he wants to do.”

“Please tell me you’re not doing this because you hope he’ll fall in love with you, Patrick.”

Just then, the plane starts to shake, and the pilot makes an announcement.

“We seem to be experiencing some unexpected turbulence. Please stay seated with your seatbelts fastened.”

Once again, Patrick turns to look worriedly over at David, remembering how he mentioned his hatred of flying. He hopes this passes quickly and that David is never the wiser.

Patrick’s mind drifts back to his talk with Stevie. He’s spent so much of his life doing what he thought everybody wanted from him, and now it’s his turn to do what he wants. Asking David to stay married is an impulsive thing to do, sure, but he feels right in his decision to have asked and he’s excited to see what comes from this.

Even if David decides he wants nothing to do with him in the future, and the two of them part ways, he will always remember how David was the first one to make him realize who he truly is: a gay man.

He feels bad about it, but eventually he has to wake David up. Which is not an easy feat and is also perhaps the scariest thing he’s ever had to do, and that’s coming from a man who woke up married to practically a stranger.

As soon as David opens his eyes, he flails around and yells “Where’s the bird?” which earns him some concerned glances from their surrounding neighbors on the plane.

They get off the plane, David still grumbling about being woken up.

“Would you rather I’d have left you on the plane, David?” Patrick teases in his light-hearted way that shows he holds no malice towards him. 

“Well, hmm, let’s think about that. It’s either that or go see my family which I’m very much not looking forward to right now.”

Patrick begins to grab their bags from baggage claim and he asks,

“Do you want to help with these or...?”

“Well, since you asked, I’d rather not, thanks so much.”

Patrick can’t help but smile at this comment. As much as he feels like he shouldn’t reward bratty David, he finds even the brattiest of his behaviors exceptionally adorable. 

He catches Stevie looking at him and immediately feels his face get hot. He doesn’t know her very well, but he knows her well enough at this point to figure she will never let him hear the end of his crush on his accidental husband.

He grabs the bags, and notices David reaches down to grab one—the smallest one—but it still fills him with warmth and affection for the man. 

They all head toward the exit and Patrick is about to ask if they should call an Uber or something when David gasps and says, “Oh my god, please tell me that what I think is happening is not happening right now.”

Patrick is about to ask what he means by this until he notices a man holding a giant sign that says “David Rose, Husband, & Friends.” This isn’t even what stands out the most, however, because the man is standing next to a sleek black stretch limo. 

David exclaims, angrily, “I’m gonna call him, why did he do this?!” and whips out his phone to do exactly that, when Stevie says, “David, I know you’re probably super embarrassed right now, but I, for one, am exhausted, and would just like to get to your place, so can you wait to yell at your dad before we’re forced to take the bus or something?”

David looks to Patrick, who silently pleads with him. He puts his phone down and sighs dramatically. “Fine, but this isn’t the end of this.”

“Of course not,” Patrick agrees. “It doesn’t have to be. It’s just, it’s late, and you mentioned it takes a while to get to your house, and also I could really use a shower.”

David purses his lips and then nods. He looks like he has more he wants to say and is trying desperately to keep it contained inside him.

Patrick thanks the man with the sign as he helps him get the bags into the car while Stevie and David get into the limo. Patrick slides in beside David as the limo driver gets into the front seat.

“Is everyone settled back there?” he asks. They all affirm they are and then he looks right at David and Patrick, sitting right beside each other in the mirror, and says, “Congratulations on your marriage.”

“Oh,” says David, shocked. He is unable to maintain eye contact, but murmurs, “Thank you.”

“I can put up the partition, if you’d like.”

Patrick wishes he had a camera so he could capture the look that crosses David’s face when the driver says this.

“Oh, no , I mean, sure, yeah, you can do that, it’s just umm, we won’t,” he coughs, “umm we won’t be doing anything back here, you don’t have to worry.”

Stevie chortles and Patrick is trying so hard not to laugh, disguising his laughter as a very unconvincing cough.

The driver merely nods and puts the partition up.

Stevie falls asleep almost as soon as the limo takes off and David and Patrick just look at her in astonishment.

Patrick notices David is kind of jittery, playing with his rings, a habit that Patrick has observed him do whenever he was nervous these past couple of days, and he places a hand on his knee. David immediately stops fidgeting and just looks at him, chewing on his lip.

“Aren’t I the one who’s supposed to be nervous here? I mean, meeting the family? After we only just got married? That’s a big deal,” he says, teasingly, trying to get David to talk to him, or at least to smile, hoping it will distract him from his worries about how these introductions will go.

It has the opposite effect of his desired outcome, making David tense up.

“Hey, hey, David, I was just kidding,” he says, rubbing his shoulders the way he’s come to realize is soothing to David. “It’s going to be okay.”

“Mhmm, you say that, but I have a feeling once you meet them, you’ll purchase a one-way ticket to the furthest place you can get from me.”

“David, I meant what I said to you before. We’re in this together, okay? I wouldn’t do that to you.”

There’s a pause and Patrick can practically hear David’s brain whirring. 

“Gucci bag for your thoughts?”

David turns and shoots him a look. “I know you’re trying to be funny, but I need you to know that we do not joke about such things, Patrick.”

“Oh, my apologies, David,” he says and then grabs David’s hand and squeezes it. “Seriously, though, what’s on your mind?”

David hesitates, mouth opening and closing several times, before asking quietly, “Are you though?”

“Am I what, David?”

He clears his throat and looks away from Patrick, unable to look him in the eye. “You asked if you’re the one who’s meant to be nervous and I want to know if you are. I mean, I know you said you were the other night, but has it gotten better or umm, is it still—” he trails off, as if unsure how or unable to clearly articulate what he’s trying to say. 

“I’ll be honest, I’m still a little nervous, but a lot of my nerves stem from the fact that I haven’t spoken to my own parents yet.”

David nods, trying to appear less freaked out than he is by this statement. 

He can’t imagine what Patrick must be going through and he is amazed at how he just takes it in stride. Patrick went from having—presumably—a somewhat normal life to being married to a man—after just having broken up with a seemingly long-term girlfriend—forced into the spotlight, and on his way to meeting said man’s parents.

David doesn’t know what he would do if he had to meet Patrick’s parents right away. He’s never kept anyone’s interest for long enough to even hit the “meeting the parents” stage. The thought of meeting Patrick’s parents horrifies him. How would they feel about him—the man who ruined their son’s life? He can’t imagine them feeling anything but disdain for him and he honestly could not blame them in the slightest. 

He wonders what they are like, where this far-too-sweet-of-a-man came from, and before he can stop himself, he blurts out, “Tell me about them? Umm, if you want to, that is.”

Patrick smiles—a tiny little smile, but a smile nevertheless—and asks, amusedly, “What exactly do you want to know?”

“Are you close to them?”

“Yes, pretty close. I’m an only child so it was always just the two of them and me, but I do have a pretty big extended family.”

David loves seeing Patrick get so happy talking about his cousins and the big gatherings they have. He finds himself maybe even getting a little envious at how close he seems to his family. David’s never felt all that close to his family, but he’s glad Patrick has that. 

He’s so caught up in listening to Patrick—something he’s come to realize he would do for hours if given the opportunity—that at first he doesn’t realize the limo has pulled to a stop.

“I’m gonna go get the bags,” Patrick says, “and leave you with the sure-to-be-very-fun task of waking Stevie up. Good luck,” he says, smirking, and patting his knee before opening the door and getting out of the limo.

David starts out by calling Stevie’s name, but she stays sleeping. He inches closer to her and shakes her shoulder, but this still doesn’t work. He takes a water bottle out of the mini-fridge and pours a bit on her head, not knowing how else to wake her up—and also because he’s a bit of an asshole.

She wakes up, shivering, and glaring at him, water running down from the top of her head and dripping off.

“Oh, you better sleep with one eye open after that, Rose,” she threatens in a low, gravelly voice.

“You can’t touch me, I’ll be sleeping with Patrick and you can’t get him too,” David says confidently before he can think about what he said.

“You think I have any problem getting Patrick to get to you, you're in for a world of surprises,” Stevie responds, her voice still rough.

David wants to say that Patrick would never team up with Stevie over him, that he barely knows her, but he realizes it would be dumb for him to say such a thing, considering Patrick’s pretty much known Stevie as long as himself. He also worries a bit because Patrick and Stevie seem to share a hobby of teasing him and he has to admit—in his head, not to Stevie—that this cannot end well for him. 

David and Stevie get out of the limo and join Patrick, who’s outside and struggling with the bags. Stevie reaches down and helps him, and he shoots her a grateful look. 

Patrick takes in the apartment building the limo pulled in front of and then looks at David and says, “I didn’t realize you all live in an apartment together.”

David blushes and looks down as his shoes nervously, “Oh, umm, my dad owns this building. My parents live in the penthouse and then my sister and I each have our own apartment.” He turns to Stevie and says, “We can get you and Cassie set up in your own apartment,” and then, looking up at Patrick, locking eyes with him, he says, “And, umm, you can stay with me, you know, since we, umm, are married and everything.” 

When they enter the lobby, all of the Roses are in the foyer, acting like they weren’t waiting for them to walk in the door at any moment. 

David starts in on the introductions, knowing the sooner this gets done, the sooner they can head upstairs to their respective apartments and get some sleep. 

“Patrick, Stevie, this is my family. Mom, Dad, Alexis, this is my, uh, husband Patrick and my new friend Stevie.”

“David! I didn’t know you could make friends,” Alexis comments, in a tone that suggests that this is genuinely brand-new information for her and that she’s maybe even proud of him for it.

“Extraordinarily new,” says Stevie, her amusement showing through.

“Okay, so like, how much did he pay you? Did he buy you this... plaid ...you’re wearing or did you get that from a homeless person or something?” Alexis asks sympathetically, running her finger down Stevie’s sleeve.

“This is my flannel,” Stevie says lamely as David retorts, “Slip on a banana peel, Alexis.”

Alexis rolls her eyes and strides over to Patrick, wiggling her hips as she stands far-too-close to him. Patrick is completely oblivious to it, but the effect is not lost on Stevie, whose eyes are glued to Alexis as she walks. David rolls his eyes at this, but when Alexis brushes her hand on Patrick’s right cheek, he lets out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding in, and folds his arms, seeing red.

Johnny, noticing this, says, “Hey, now, Alexis, get your hands off your brother’s husband. It’s bad enough you stole several of his significant others in the past, we don’t need to be in the news again so soon.”

David just stares at his father, mouth wide open, flabbergasted. Alexis, removes her hand from Patrick’s face with a pout, but then says, “We saw some pictures on the news, but they do not do you justice, Patrick. David, how on earth did you manage to get a cute little thing like this to marry you?”

“I’ll have you know—”

“You know,” says Alexis, batting her eyelashes. “I was rated in the top twenty best kissers in last year’s Cosmo.” She turns to look at David and continues, “David was devastated that he didn’t make the cut. I was number two. Number five, who should’ve been number ten if you consider number seven, told me in confidence that you were number twenty-four. Well,” she says, turning back to Patrick, “I’m sure you know he’s not top twenty worthy, Patrick.”

Patrick, who hadn’t said anything—hadn’t been able to do much of anything besides slow blink—since entering the apartment building, opens his mouth and says, “I think that’s very unfair of you to say, Alexis. David is an excellent kisser.”

It surprises him that he was able to get the words out so smoothly, but he knows his face is bright red because saying this reminds him that David is, indeed, a good kisser, and the image of the two of them making out once again presents itself in his head.

“Okay, well it’s been a very long night and so I think we ought to be getting to bed.”

“Oh, sure, sure, son. We’ll talk more tomorrow,” Johnny says.

David, with Stevie and Patrick following, gets onto the elevator and hits the floor for both of their apartments—having gotten the key to a previously unoccupied apartment on his floor from his father. They get off the elevator and David shows Stevie to where she and Cassie will be staying.  Patrick trails behind, and once Stevie’s settled, the two of them head inside David’s apartment.

They walk inside and close the door, and David sighs loudly. David gives him an extremely fast tour. 

“This is obviously the living room. Kitchen’s in there. Bathroom right over there. A little dining area, and then finally the bedroom’s back here.”

They walk into the bedroom and Patrick looks around the room, surprised and amazed. There’s art all over the walls, which isn’t surprising considering David’s affinity for art. There’s a large oval mirror on the wall, and a beautiful crystal chandelier in the center of the ceiling. 

The bed is the most breathtaking part of the room, however. David’s bed is a king-sized four poster, with black curtains covering the outside. The sheets are Egyptian cotton and look extremely soft. Knowing what he knows about David, the room is very him, matching his black-and-white aesthetic.

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry about him. More often than not the man walks around with his foot in his mouth.”

Patrick puts the bags down by the door while David sits on the bed.

“Sorry about all of them, actually,” he continues, looking down at the floor.

“Don’t be sorry!” Patrick says cheerfully. “I like your family, David.”

“You don’t have to lie,” David says, but he’s smiling a little bit now. “And you also don’t have to listen to anything Alexis says, ever.”

“Oh yeah, I didn’t believe that one,” Patrick chuckles, and some of the tension in David’s body dissipates but is also replaced with new tension of wondering what Patrick means by notbelieving that David is a bad kisser.

“Good, she’s wrong and doesn’t know what she’s talking about,” David says, starting to pull out his line of nightly skincare products, and then he hesitates before saying, “It was very nice of you to defend me, though.”

“Well, I couldn’t just let her tell blatant lies about you that I know for a fact to be untrue.”

Patrick’s eyes widen. He hadn’t meant to actually say that out loud. David’s looking at him, confusedly, and there’s no taking it back, as much as he wishes he could just pull the words from David’s mind and pretend he never uttered them. 

“Umm, what, what do you mean?” David asks. “We, umm, we haven’t—”

“No, we definitely have,” Patrick says, figuring he should just get this over with. “I didn’t tell you because I was, umm, embarrassed about it, but uh, the very first thing I remembered from Friday night was the two of us kissing.”

David just stares at him and Patrick is unable to tell how he’s feeling from the blank, untelling look on his face. In his panic, he blurts out,

“Do you need a reminder?” He coughs, face turning bright red, wishing the rational, articulate, not-embarrassing part of his brain would saw a hole in the floor beneath him like in a Looney Tunes cartoon and get him out of this increasingly awkward situation. 

The wind feels knocked out of David’s lungs. He hadn’t known what to expect at all, but it certainly was not that .

He chokes.

“Uh. Yes. Yeah, I mean, if you think that’s a good idea, we can do that.”

Quickly, to try to save face—as if such a thing could be done at this point—he says, “I just think, you know, people are gonna ask. Plus next time I can defend you with some sober experience to back it up,” Patrick says, and David swears he says it flirtily but he also swears he’s going crazy.

Patrick’s never like this—stuttery, inarticulate, and making a fool out of himself in front of someone—but then again, he’s never felt like this for anyone else before. 

“I, uh, I think I could be amenable to that,” David says. “For the sake of practice, of course.”

David sets his bag of skincare products down and joins Patrick, who had been sitting on the edge of the bed. David leans in closer and Patrick worries that his heart is beating so loudly that David will hear it and be weirded out by it, but then David’s kissing him and nothing else matters. His thoughts are consumed with David and how wonderful kissing him feels. 

David finds that he could get used to this “practice” business if this is what it feels like. Patrick’s matching him in terms of enthusiasm and things are really started to get heated. All of a sudden, his brain supplies him with an equally passionate moment shared between the two of them. 

They’re close—so close—but David wants them to be closer. He’s kissing Patrick’s neck and Patrick’s breathing heavily, trying to regain his breath. Patrick pulls him in to kiss him again and David straddles him, grinding their cocks together through their clothes. 

Patrick stops and pulls away and David wonders what he did wrong. Maybe he just realized how repulsive and horrifying of a mistake this was. David barely heard what he said, but he heard the words “sleep with you” and “can’t” and his worst fears were realized. 

David pulls away, not looking Patrick in the eye. Patrick wonders what changed. Just a couple of minutes ago, he seemed to be into it, and now he won’t even look at him. 

He just wants to practice, to make everything look realistic, to not have anyone be suspicious of them. That’s all he wants from this. That’s why he asked to practice, David thinks. 

He didn’t know why he was getting so upset about this either. It’s not like he’s never been rejected before, but why had Stevie been trying so hard to convince her Patrick was anything but straight? The flash of memory that came to him just now was more than enough proof for him that he’s straight.  Patrick was just drunk and horny. It wouldn’t be the first time someone had only wanted him when they were drunk. 

David picks up his bag and rushes off to the bathroom, not answering when Patrick calls after him, simply pretending he didn’t hear him.

Patrick knows he must have done something wrong, but he has no idea what. Had David agreed to this out of some sense of obligation? Had he gone too far? 

It feels like Patrick’s been lost in his thoughts for hours by the time David emerges from the bathroom. David continues to avoid looking at him, instead looking at the floor. 

Patrick goes into the bathroom to brush his teeth and change into pajamas, forgoing the shower he had desperately wanted before. 

When he comes out of the bathroom, the light is off in the room and it’s eerily quiet. Patrick fumbles around in the dark, feeling his way towards the bed. He slides in, his eyes adjusting to the dark. He sees David facing away from him, and having scooched as far on his side of the bed as he could, presumably to not come into contact with him.

“David, can we talk, please?”

David ignores him, or is already asleep, but he figures the former is most likely. He’s exhausted and jet-lagged and his body is screaming at him to get some rest, but his mind just won’t let him.

He hears soft snores coming from David’s side of the bed and he feels relief. At least one of them will be well-rested for whatever is in store for them tomorrow.