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It was all Luke’s fault.
Before all this mess, Jacaerys could say he had never had a jealous episode in his life. His previous partners had filled that role and Jace always cited jealousy as a factor of their break up. Sometimes it was true that he was tired of it, other times he was just so bored that it felt rude to say and made up a story about feeling suffocated by jealousy.
It was true he was something else, fuck being modest. He was beyond hot, and Jace never needed anyone to tell him that. He’d been turning heads for a long time and sure, that certainly could get annoying for the people dating him.
But not Cregan Stark.
He relished in Jace’s attractiveness. He bragged about it with Jace on his arm and praised him in bed for it and Jace? He moaned like a whore for it.
Happy with the idea of never having to endure another insecure partner, Jacaerys felt like a champion.
That was until Lucerys called him on a random Tuesday and instead of a hello, he opened with, “Cregan’s cheating on you. I just saw him having dinner with a woman, they were speaking super closely.”
“Are you high? Cregan is not cheating on me.”
“I’m an athlete? I don’t do drugs,” Luke said with a scoff.
“Right, ‘cause no athlete has ever been caught doing drugs,” Jace replied with a scoff of his own. “Just so you know, Cregan was having dinner with his sister.” He hoped that was enough to end this stupid conversation.
Luke hummed and asked, “Are you sure? I didn’t know Cregan had another sister because that was not Sara.”
Okay, what the fuck?
“What?”
“Tiny boobs but skinny, with dark curly hair and super long legs. Nice mini skirt she had on.”
Cregan’s exact fucking type.
Jacaerys hung up, threw the phone down and screamed.
Was Jacaerys now the jealous partner? Sure seemed like it.
Somewhere in his mind, he imagined all his exes making fun of him and shouting karma, karma, karma.
It was clear Jacaerys was spiraling. Luke proposed they send a secret detective after Cregan and said Joffrey had once told him he knew a guy (and that was a little concerning, considering that Joffrey was a teenager but that wasn’t the point.) Jace refused and recruited his brothers instead. Luke got him into this mess and he was going to live with him through it. And Joffrey…Joffrey was always an add-on to whatever it was Jace and Luke got into.
So while his brothers were cyber stalking Cregan and trying to find out who that harlot was, Jacaerys was studying Cregan at home. It was infuriating. The man was so adept at pretending there was nothing going on, that nothing was wrong. Even when Jace pointedly asked what he’d been up to last night, Cregan lied through his fucking teeth.
“Went out to dinner with Sara, love, I told you.”
Motherfucker. He was so sure about it, too. Surely, Sara was in on the truth. Traitor.
“Of course.” Jace tried to make it sound sweet and casual but even to his own ears, it came out sounding icy and detached. Cregan frowned in confusion, Jace pretended not to notice.
After a couple of tense minutes in silence, Cregan came up behind him and pulled him into his arms. “I’m sorry, baby,” he said with his forehead resting at the back of Jace’s neck. So he was going to confess. Jace braced himself for it. “We’ll all go out to dinner next time, I’m sorry for not including you.” No confession then. Jace was frozen in disbelief. “Hey, I got an idea!”
As if on an automatic setting, Jace said, “What is it?”
“You should bring your tux from your parents’ place, tons of events coming up this season, you know?” He kissed Jace’s ear. “And it’s a nice excuse to visit your parents.”
Jacaerys wanted to fight, to ask why on earth Cregan was suggesting he went all the way to Dragonstone for a tux and continue fighting when the answer was obviously to get him out of the house for a couple of days. But he didn’t. Instead he just put on his best fake smile and said he’d think about it. And later, while Cregan was showering, Jace went through his phone.
For some reason, Cregan had not changed his password like Jace thought he would. His messages were nothing suspicious, most of them were all about work and Sara’s chat held nothing but meme after meme. There was one message from a business called Black Wood Decor & Planning but it said nothing but to Cregan to check his email for a quote.
But then, Jace went to check the calendar and that’s where he hit the target. Highlighted for the next day, in red, ‘dinner with Aly’ along with the restaurant name and address.
Jace put the phone in the exact same position Cregan had left it and took out his own to call his brothers.
They tried to be as sneaky as possible. They hid outside so they could see Cregan arrive and go in and then Luke went ahead of him and Joffrey to ask for a table close by but not so close that Cregan would spot them.
Everything was going well in their little espionage session so far. Luke and Joffrey ordered food but Jacaerys skipped, the last thing on his mind was eating. But then Joffrey regretted his choice and tried to steal food away from Luke who had always been weird about sharing food and they started bickering loudly and people started turning their heads towards them…including Cregan who zeroed on Jace in a second.
Filled with rage, Jacaerys stood and left behind his idiot brothers to confront his idiot boyfriend.
“Sorry to ruin your date, darling ,” Jace said, voice dripping with sarcasm. He turned on the woman. “And you, skank, I’m gonna have words with you after.”
“Excuse me?”
“What?” Looking horrified, Cregan let his face fall on his hands. “Jace, stop, you got this all wrong. Let’s get you a chair.”
“No, I’m not sitting with you and the girl you’re cheating on me with, are you insane?!”
“I’m not cheating,” Cregan hissed, looking around to make sure no one was overhearing. “Jacaerys, meet Alysanne. She’s the event organizer for your surprise birthday party.”
An awkward silence, broken by Jace saying, “I’m sorry, what?”
“Alysanne Blackwood, with Black Wood Decor & Planning. We specialize in high profile events. Not a skank.”
“Shit,” Jace muttered, remembering the quote on Cregan’s message. He could not bring himself to meet Cregan’s eyes. “Gods, I’m so sorry. I’m going to kill Lucerys.”
“I’d like to make it known,” Alysanne added, “That I warned your boy here not to do a surprise party. Something like this always happens, planning them makes everything seem so suspicious. Did I not tell you that?”
“Ms. Blackwood, I am truly so sorry,” Jace said in a rush. “I’m so embarrassed.” He wanted to cry but he decided to save his tears for when Cregan decided to break up with him for being insane.
“No worries! It has happened so many times I’ve lost count. If you’ll excuse me, though, I need the restroom.”
And that left him to face Cregan alone. With a deep breath, he faced Cregan expecting to find anger and disappointment. Instead he found him poorly holding back his laughter.
“Oh man, that was hilarious,” he wheezed.
“Cregan. I’m really so sorry. Lucerys, he said…it doesn’t matter what he said.” A quick look behind him confirmed his suspicion, his brothers had dipped. Surprise, surprise. “I feel so stupid. I can’t believe I let this get in my head.” The tears he was barely holding back threatened to spill over. “I understand if you want to end this.”
Cregan got serious really quick. “No, Jace. I’m not even mad, although I do want to have a talk about this later at home, in private. Okay?”
Jace wiped the moisture under his eyes as delicately and discreetly as possible. “Okay.”
“Alright!” Alysanne said excitedly as she sat back down. “Let’s plan this thankfully no longer a surprise party! Now Jace, Cregan tells me you’re all about red so,” she pulled out a binder. “I have ideas.”
He would have to grovel, and he didn’t think the mortification would die any time soon but at least his boyfriend was not cheating. He wanted to wring Lucerys’ neck and Joffrey’s, of course, but he could plan for that at the same time he planned for his party.