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It should be enough, really. Mac should know better, he should. He’s the one that’s lived with Dennis for over two decades and practically knows the man better than he knows himself. He should have known that a relationship with his best friend would seem like nothing more than a dirty secret.
Mac isn’t a chick. That’s just the thing. To Dennis, Mac isn’t anything to boast or tell stories about (and maybe that’s just because they share all the same friends), nor is he some astounding lay to be jealous of. He’s just… Mac. And they’ve already been codependent for half their lives, so why would it even matter for anyone to know they are officially together—as a couple. As a couple in love that does couple things in private and sleeps in the same bed every night in their shitty apartment under the watch of at least one of Dennis’s cameras.
But what bothers Mac the most is that Dennis doesn’t even want the gang to know about their relationship, let alone the entire world. Their closest—no, only friends aren’t even allowed to be told about it, which is more than difficult for Mac to keep to himself. He’s a vocal guy, and despite any shit the two might get for it, the group has gone through enough together to justify the knowledge that Mac and Dennis finally got their heads screwed on straight (or, not straight, but so it goes).
Whatever. Mac still gets Dennis to himself in ways he hadn’t prior, and at the very least, in his head, Mac can deem him boyfriend. It is enough. He just needs to convince himself of it, like he has done with so many other things in life.
But then again, he had convinced himself he wasn’t gay for the longest time, and look where he is now.
He’s too old for this.
Mac currently scowls at his beer. It’s early evening, the bar is dead, and he wishes something interesting would happen so he could get out of his own head.
Dee slides in behind the bar to grab another beer of her own to crack open. Mac doesn’t even bother to move, or leave her with some comment about her birdlike appearance as per usual.
She thunks a bottle down on the counter.
“Nothing? Really?”
Mac shrugs. He lifts his beer to take a long swig. “Does it always gotta be something? I’m just trying to think.”
Dee snorts. “You can do that?”
Mac lifts his chin. “As a matter of fact, Dee, yes I can. Unlike your inability to shut up,” he says.
“Yeah, that makes more sense,” Dee sighs. She swipes her beer off the counter and crosses the bar to join Frank and Charlie at a booth. Dennis has been a no-show all day.
It was weird. That morning, when Mac had finally woken up, Dennis hadn’t been in the apartment either. He had just taken his phone and the Range Rover to God knows where without a word. When Mac had come into Paddy’s earlier that day less enthusiastic than usual and without an answer as to Dennis’s whereabouts, no further questions were asked. Dennis warranted that kind of thing.
It’s about twenty minutes later when the front door is thrown open with urgency and a dramatic flair to mark Dennis’s arrival. Mac seems to be the only one to look up, at least at first, finally feeling a little bit of light being released back into his soul. The smile that begins to form on his face is entirely involuntary.
“I have an announcement!” Dennis, well. Announces. There are no patrons for him to shoo out of the bar, so instead he just wordlessly turns to lock the door and turn off their bright blue OPEN sign. The rest of the gang is now paying attention as well.
“Well don’t just stand there and say nothin’,” Frank grouses from his spot.
Dennis holds up a finger. “Patience, Frank,” he says. “It has taken me a deal of courage to stand before you all at this very moment.”
Mac frowns. Even he has no idea where this might be leading.
“I, Dennis Reynolds,” Dennis continues, “am in a relationship.”
Oh. Oh. Is that what this is? What Mac thinks it might be?
Well, Mac supposes, anytime is better than never. He would have just preferred to have been consulted about this beforehand.
“Oh, congrats, dude.” Charlie raises his beer as a weak toast. “What’s her name?”
“He, actually,” Dennis corrects, pointing a finger at Charlie. His eyes sweep the bar and for a moment they connect with Mac’s. Something twists in Mac’s chest. This is it, huh? This is really it? “And—that’s it. I have nothing to add.”
Mac’s shoulders slump and he deflates. He turns back toward the bar and polishes off his beer as Dee and Dennis start to bicker about nothing. Dennis still isn’t quite there yet, then. That just about settles it.
Maybe Mac should start calling Dennis a pussy about it. That’d surely get some sort of reaction out of him.
A beer is suddenly placed in front of Mac just as a presence makes itself known to his left. It’s Dennis, looking the same miserable that Mac feels. He looks tired, like he hadn’t slept very well the night before. Mac has to wonder when he had left the apartment that morning.
“What the fuck was that?” Mac whispers. He glances over his shoulder where the others sit, but they’re much too engrossed in an argument to listen in.
Dennis knocks his knee against Mac’s. “What the fuck was what, Mac? That’s all I had to say.”
Mac rolls his eyes. “Oh, right, yeah. Let me just tell the gang I have a boyfriend for no reason but not say anything else about him,” he says mockingly. “Makes total sense, dude.”
“I, well, I—look,” Dennis stammers. He sets a palm down on the sticky bartop. “I couldn’t do it, all right? I’m not—whatever.”
“Whatever,” Mac echoes. “Right. It’s whatever. Not like I care.”
Dennis huffs. “Can we not do this here? At the bar? Yell at me at home all you want, but—”
Mac shakes his head, his face contorting into something of irritation. He jabs a finger atop the counter. “No. No—you know what, Den? I don’t care anymore. I don’t care what you think. I am my own person, too, and guess what? That means I can say what I want, when I want. Because that’s freedom of speech, and this is America, and I am an American,” Mac says matter-of-factly. “I’m telling them, and that’s final.”
When Mac stands with force and bravado to turn and make his announcement, Dennis grabs his bicep and reels him back.
“No, you idiot,” Dennis hisses. “What are you doing?”
“What I want, Den,” Mac replies. “For once.”
Mac yanks his arm from Dennis’s grip and steps closer to the middle of the bar. He claps his hands together.
“Attention everyone!”
Three heads snap in his direction, mouths shutting their previous conversation up instantly. Mac can feel Dennis’s eyes bore into the back of his head, but he shakes off the sensation that pricks at his neck. He’s been on the receiving end of that glare more times than he can count. It has long since lost its power.
“I also have an announcement,” Mac says with emphasis on the also. “Dennis and I are dating. I am the he that he is in a relationship with. Any questions?”
Mac is met with nothing but blank stares. He blinks back. Charlie slowly raises a hand.
Again Mac claps, and points at Charlie. “Yes, Charlie?”
“We already knew that, dude,” he informs Mac. “Like, for months now. Frank caught you guys banging in the back office one time.”
Behind Mac, Dennis lets out a loud scoff. “Ugh, Frank!”
Frank shrugs. “You guys left the door unlocked!” He exclaims. Frank waves a hand in Dennis and Mac’s direction. “That’s on you, Dennis.”
Mac stays tacked to his spot. All that worrying, all that strain, was for absolutely nothing. A bottle scrapes across cheap wood and a hand wraps around Mac’s wrist and tugs him toward the door. He’s still without words, his mouth bobbing open and shut as he stumbles along with Dennis storming to the exit.
“Bullshit, that’s fucking bullshit. This is all fucking bullshit,” Dennis mutters. “Why didn’t they say anything?! And… and Frank? God! This is so fucking st—”
Outside the bar, in the cool evening air, Mac silences Dennis by urging him against the brick wall and kissing him stupid. He grabs at the collar of that dumb blue dress shirt Dennis always seems to wear. Dennis makes no protests, though a muffled sound of surprise escapes him.
They pull apart. “Whatever,” Mac breathes. “Right?”
Dennis takes a deep breath. He nods. “Yeah, yep,” He laughs, and sighs. “Whatever. Fine. Whatever. We’re talking about this later.”
Mac grins. “Sure, Den. Sure we will.”