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A thought occurred to Doug on his fourth- or maybe it was his fifth beer? He wasn’t sure. Regardless, it occurs to Doug that his friend, recently divorced Mark Greene, had gone from joking around and actually smiling with him all of three minutes ago, had gotten shockingly quiet. His eyes fixed on the baseball game, which was odd because it wasn’t like the Cubs were playing tonight. Thankfully, because it was raining and it most likely would’ve been called off.
To see if Mark was truly paying attention, Doug quietly grabs the remote and changes the channel. Seems the shift over to the news didn’t even phase him, his eyes were glazed over. He was nursing his… second beer? So it wasn’t like he wasn’t paying attention because he was drunk. But it had to be something.
Doug watched as Mark tapped his fingers on the bottle of his beer. Hmm maybe he wants another? Doug stands up and walks over to his fridge pulling out another beer and setting down his own beer on the kitchen counter.
Gently Doug taps the beer bottle Mark was holding with the fresh one. The sound gets Mark to look up at him, and there is something about the sadness in his eyes that makes Doug want to withdraw the new beer he was offering him, and yet he doesn’t. Mark sighs and sets down his empty beer on the floor and takes the new one. Not bothering to drink it, just stare at it.
Doug swallows, “Hey. You doing alright there?”
Mark’s eyes shift to the TV and he does take a sip of his beer, “Yep.”
So it was going to be this way huh? Mark was not gonna make it easy, was he? Doug held in a sigh and pushed forward. He spoke as gently as he could, “It’s just we were having a good time before I went to the bathroom, and now you-”
“I am what?” Mark blinked and then looked back at him and this time he looked… annoyed.
Rather than say what his friend was acting like, Doug asked a question instead to defuse this as best as he could, “Did… Did I say something to upset you?”
“I am not upset.” Mark said in a tone that made it pretty obvious to Doug that he was.
“You are avoiding the question.” Doug said as he watched Mark stand up, “And now me too, apparently.”
This got Mark to snap all of his attention to his friend, “Doug, I-” Mark sighed and took a deep breath, using his free hand to cover his mouth, clearly thinking about what to say next. He uncovered his mouth, took a long swig of the beer before setting it down next to Doug’s and turning to face him, stuffing his hands into his pockets. “This has been, what; the third night in a row we have hung out?”
“Yes…” Doug said slowly.
“It’s just-” Mark took a deep breath in and out, whatever he had to say was clearly difficult for him, “It was one thing when you flirted with when I was married. I know it didn’t mean anything-”
Doug blinked. Wait, what?
“But I thought now that I was single you’d-”
Doug held up his hand, “What? I have never-”
Mark scoffed,“Oh now that’s just bullshit. You have. You do it at work. You have been doing it all night! All of these nights.” This time Mark held up his hand, “ You don’t talk to your guy friends the same you do me. I have noticed.”
Meanwhile Doug’s mind was racing. Was it flirting? He thought he was just hyping his best friend up. But thinking about it… oh, fuck.
At this Doug started to laugh, before covering his mouth, he wanted to try to make it clear he wasn’t laughing at Mark. “Okay. No. No. No.” He shook his head, smiling even as his cheeks started to grow hot, “You are right, I have been flirting. I just… I never noticed.” Doug quickly shook his head as Mark frowned, “No that’s not- Flirting with you is just- easy? I am not sure that’s the right word?”
Mark blinked, his expression shifting to one of confusion to one of consideration, “Effortless?”
Doug snapped his fingers, “That’s it!” Mark chuckled softly before his face fell again. “You think I have been stringing you along?”
“Y-Yes!” Mark nodded, before giving Doug a tired smile, “So what you are saying is, it wasn’t intentional.” There was suddenly a buzz and Mark pulled his pager out of his pocket and he walked over to the phone and Doug followed.
“No I wouldn’t-” Doug paused as Mark held up a finger.
“Dr. Green. Hmm. Hmm. Listen I am a bit- Yeah. Yeah. No. No, I can make it in an hour.” Mark nodded along, “I’ll be there.” And hung up before turning to Doug who was admittedly standing closer than he normally did in his house. “I need to go, they need me.”
Doug frowned, “Work? Now? But-?” He had to work? After he just said he was tired of being strung along, did that mean Mark liked him? Was he just going to leave before telling him? Were they just never going to bring this up again? When would they have time to talk about this?
As Doug was wondering this Mark had grabbed his rain coat and put it on in one fluid motion. “I’ll see you tomorrow-”
“Wait-!” But Doug had already headed out the door. Shit. Doug hurriedly grabbed his keys and followed after. The words he was going to say ran through his head as he ran after his friend.
I wouldn’t do that, not to you. It’s different with you. You mean something more than casual flirting. You are my best friend. I care about you. I don’t want to be with anyone else. You mean so much to me. You… You-
“Mark!” Doug shouted as soon as he opened the front door. Mark, who had just made his way down the front steps, froze in his tracks before turning around to look at him. The rain had begun to cling to his glasses but even though it was hard to see his eyes, Doug could tell he was starting to tear up.
In three steps Doug had closed the space between them and since words had made his friend feel like shit maybe words wouldn’t fix this. Doug reached out, cupping the back of Mark’s head pulling him in for a kiss. No more stringing along. He was making his feelings known. The feelings he didn’t even know he had until that night. But that didn’t matter, not to him.
When they finally broke apart, Doug took a moment to wipe away Mark’s tears. His voice soft as he hovered close to Mark’s lips. “You doing alright?”
Mark nodded, “Yeah. Yeah I am.” And he smiled and it no longer mattered that he was being soaked from the downpour, Doug felt warm.
Doug felt himself relax before taking a deep breath, “I know you need to go-”
“But…?” Mark said slowly, he clearly sensed there was something Doug wanted to say.
“I want you to know this is..real. Okay?” There could be more that could be said, but that felt like all that needed to be said.
There was a pause before Mark kissed him, gently reaching out to hold one of Doug’s hands before pulling back, a smile on his face, his eyes sparkling, “I got it.” Gently he placed a hand on Mark’s cheek, squeezing Doug’s hand with his other hand, before turning around and heading out.
“I’ll get you breakfast in the morning.” Doug shouted after him.
“You better!” Mark shouted back and Doug laughed. Doug watched until Mark was out of sight. He would see him in the morning. It was fine. His boyfriend had forgiven him for being an oblivious fool. Thank hell for that.