'Til There Was You - Jerry Cole Page 0,55

a spotlight on how much Austin had changed. He had always thought that Freddy was settling with him. Now he knew it to be the other way around. Freddy had little to nothing going for him. Austin... well, Austin had long since outgrown the man.

“But mistakes happen!” Freddy reached forward and took Austin’s hand again. He had just finished explaining why he wasn’t to blame for leaving Austin, and was now transitioning into how it was probably a good thing and that Austin should just be happy. “What’s important is how we bounce back from them. Together.” He kissed the back of Austin’s hand again.

“Mistakes?” Austin pushed his tongue into his cheek. He wanted to shout. He wanted to yell. He wanted to say all manner of things, but stopped himself. “Is that all it was?”

“Oh, don’t start.” Freddy let go of Austin’s hand and shuffled back in his seat in exaggeration. “Honestly, you should almost be thanking me – look how good you look. Tell me, would that have happened if I hadn’t left you?” He raised an eyebrow at Austin.

“No, it wouldn’t have,” Austin said simply.

“Exactly!” Freddy beamed. He then shuffled forward again and battered his eyelashes. “See, everything turned out for the best. Now, where is that silly waitress?” Freddy perked up and started looking around the restaurant for the waitress. Already, Austin could seem him getting frustrated and already he was readying himself for a ‘scene.’ Freddy loved scenes. Austin hated them.

What was he doing here? Seriously. When he saw Freddy in the park yesterday, he’d felt nothing for him. Less than nothing. Yet even still, here he was, sitting through what might end up being the worst date of all time. And for what? Austin had no... actually, Austin knew exactly why he was here. He just didn’t like to think about it.

“So, while we wait for the world’s slowest waitress...” Freddy swiveled back in his chair and turned his full attention on Austin. “Tell me, who was that hunk I saw you with in the park – come now, I won’t get jealous.”

Austin didn’t want to talk about it. Oh God, how he didn’t want to talk about it. Even thinking about it sent a sharp stabbing pain to his gut, while simultaneously squeezing his heart until the blood literally stopped pumping. It was more than he could bear. But it was also impossible to not think about. It had only happened a few hours ago, and it was the sole reason that Austin was here in the first place. What a day!

Something had snapped inside of Finn. One minute, he was just about ready to declare his love for Austin, and the next he was kicking him out the door like he’d just insulted his mother. It was the strangest of turnarounds which not only confused Austin to no degree, but hurt like a motherfucker.

What hurt the most was that Austin had guarded himself specifically for this exact occurrence. After that hand-job, he’d convinced himself it was a one-off deal, a slip of the libido, and that nothing would happen between he and Finn again. Fuck, he’d convinced himself that the two might be friends and this was the best-case scenario. He was so convinced of this that he had almost been looking forward to it.

But then Finn had forced him to lower his guard. Then Finn had made his move, seduced him, taken him to bed, pretended that he too had feelings that rivaled Austin’s and actually for a moment had Austin believing that the two were going to be together... and what a glorious moment that was. Even now, thinking back to those few perfect hours, Austin couldn’t help but smile.

His world came crashing down soon after, of course. Finn reverted back to his old self, acted like Austin was just a one-night stand and that he was the crazy one for thinking any different, and kicked him to the curb like last night’s dinner. And then, to top it all off, made sure to set up their next session together like it was nothing.

What had happened? What had gone wrong? Austin could only guess. But every time it did, that stabbing pain came back... so he tried not to. Rather, he accepted his fate, did his best to hide it, and committed himself to suffering through a tortures date with Freddy. The only positive he could glean from the whole ordeal was that at least he had outgrown Freddy once