Chapter Text
It was 2 a.m. and Henry couldn't sleep. He wanted to convince himself that his insomnia wasn't caused by his partner's indifference, given that he hadn't received a reply to the calls he did during the day but it simply wasn't true “Has something happened to him?” He asked himself
—repeatedly— all night. His brain was noisier on bed.
William didn't usually stay quiet, unless he was working on a project. He was a talkative person, and perhaps that's what made him a great businessman.
Henry enters Will's workshop without knocking, a plastic bag full of beer cans in his hand, hoping his friend is there. Takes a long look around the dark room and, with a bit of luck, finds the light switch.
“William? Are you here, pal?” he asks, and although he hopes he hasn't come in vain, the truth is that he already regrets it because it's a bit late.
“What do you want?” William's tired voice asks from the storeroom, and with heavy footsteps he enters the room where Emily is.
“Will, you're here I uh was worried about you...” he murmurs as he fixes his hair. “You know, sometimes you should check your phone or get out of work a little.”
The atmosphere felt tense, the sweat combined with his friend's perfume was overwhelming and made Henry feel nervous.
William watches as Emily takes a beer out of the bag while he smiles.
“Want one?”
The two look each other in the eye, and he doesn't know if Afton will take the can or tell him to leave. It's hot, and he seems irritated, blueprints on the desk and apparently many failed attempts. But in the end, Will smiles at him as he unbuttons the top three buttons of his shirt and leans over to pick up the can. He realizes he is making a great effort not to look at his partner slightly exposed chest and the chain with a cross pendant that hung from his neck while feels his cheeks flush, but decides to believe it is because of the heat and not because of anything else that is happening.
Yes, it's always been that way.
Since college, no matter how hard they tried to distance themselves, no matter how hard they tried to hide it, their feelings always overflowed onto each other.
“I'm not a faggot” William would say, and every time he repeated it, Henry would nod his head, even though inside, his heart was twisting with sadness, hoping that one day Will would realize, at least a little, how much he loved him.
The encounters didn't stop, and even during sex, Afton sometimes seemed annoyed, annoyed at waiting, annoyed at hiding. When he took off his chain or hardly spoke, Henry noticed it. For William, the desire he felt for his friend was a mistake, a temptation that, if it didn't end, would drive him crazy.
They knew everything about each other and sometimes wished they didn't, intimacies, truths, they even noticed when the other was lying, there could be no secrets between them, so they didn't hide their feelings well either, and when Henry looked tenderly at Will, he felt disgusted, he knew his friend was in love with him and he couldn't reciprocate, of course not. He looked the other way, rejected the truth, and Henry was tired of being a one-night stand and acting like nothing had happened the next day. Sometimes he thought Afton would confess something to him, and that even if they had to hide, Emily was willing to do so just to have him by his side, not as a friend, not as a coworker, but as a lover.
But that day never came. Instead, he found himself sitting in the church, watching Will at the altar with the woman who was about to become his wife, and he could do nothing but rot away in his feelings or get married too.
Will looked so happy when his first child was born, and Henry smiled with him, but he didn't share his happiness. In fact, envy was consuming his soul. He wasn't resentful of the woman, but he wanted to have her place. He wanted to raise that child, he wanted to care for him and advise him, hug the child when he came home from school and greet the man who came home from work with a kiss. He wanted to share his life with William.
He had to drown that feeling.
A few months later, he got married, but his wife could never fill that void. He didn't treat her badly, no, quite the opposite, he was a loving, attentive husband and always tried to make her happy. The problem arose when they were having sex and among the few noises he made, a small murmur escaped: “Will...”
His wife pretended. His wife was happy with him. Her husband had never failed her. No, he was a wonderful man. He was everything she had dreamed of in a husband, but that... What had that been? That question was in her mind all nights. And oh, his wife was no fool. When William invited them to his house, it was as if she didn't exist. Henry's eyes were only for his “friend.” She knew it, but she decided to stay quiet, even though that lie wasn't going to last long.
Time passed, William now had three children, and Henry was a miserable man, although he knew how to hide it well. His wife also wanted a child, and he couldn't refuse. After several attempts and lots of loving sex, Mrs. Emily was finally pregnant. Surprisingly, her husband was overjoyed at the arrival of his daughter. He had always wanted a girl, and he cared for her as if she were the only thing in the world. Those were the happiest months of his life, and he was beginning to believe that he could finally forget about Will.
How naive he was.