Page 81 of All The Things: The Last Thing He Needs Omnibus

The crisp night air burned Tommy’s lungs, but he lit a cigarette anyway, took one long drag off it as he tried to decide where to go. He knew he shouldn’t head to the bar. That was a mistake he’d never make again. Instead, he wandered around for an hour before he found himself on Gene’s doorstep. Mostly because that’s where he usually found himself when he needed to shake something off or talk to someone who wouldn’t tell him what a dipshit he was. Someone who knew him almost as well as Colleen but who didn’t have an investment in his actions beyond showing up for work and not fucking up so badly he couldn’t do his job.

Gene answered the door, wearing a flannel robe over his boxer shorts and an old undershirt. “Again?” he asked as he stepped back to let Tommy in. “Third fight in a month. You two must be going for some kinda record.”

Tommy couldn’t really laugh it off as a joke, and no way could he deny it.

“You wanna talk about it?”

“Nope.”

“Thank Christ. Beer’s in the fridge. Help yourself.”

Tommy did. But he stopped himself at two. Getting shitfaced at Gene’s was only one step better than getting shitfaced at the bar.

Gene watched the recap of one hockey game or another, and Tommy stewed. He thought about Gene—his friend, practically his father. The guy was still single twenty years after his divorce because his wife had left him with nothing but a broken heart and the bar that had been in his family for three generations. On the other hand, Gene’s sob story didn’t really pan out when he was drunk enough to get chatty. He once told Tommy how it wasn’t her fault. How he drank too much, married too young, screwed anything that came his way while she was home waiting for him. How he sucked at it. Sucked at being a husband and would’ve sucked at being a father. How much he hated that it was too late now to go back and try again.

And that was the main problem with life in general, as far as Tommy could make out. Give it a shot and fail, you fuck up (at least) two people’s lives. Don’t try at all, and you’re probably still fucking things up. Damned if you do, and damned if you don’t.

Which pretty much summed up Tommy’s life. Maybe everyone else’s life too, but fuck the rest of the world. He was too busy trying to keep his own head above water.

As Gene started to nod off in his chair, Tommy said good night and slipped out the door. He lit his last smoke and headed home.

Bobby was already in bed. Tommy could tell he wasn’t really asleep, though. Angry tension radiated from the lithe outline under the covers.

Not a good sign.

Tommy walked around to Bobby’s side of the bed, but he didn’t sit down. Instead, he dropped to his knees and reached out.

“I think it’ll take more than a blowjob tonight, Tom.” There was nothing playful about Bobby’s tone. Damn it all.

“I wasn’t planning on blowing you.”

That seemed to get Bobby’s attention. He lifted his head and turned on the lamp.

“So you’re… what? Begging?” Bobby arched a brow but didn’t look impressed. “That’s not your style, Tom.”

Fair point, and they both knew it. But if anyone could get him to beg, it’d be Bobby.

“Yeah, well. My style hasn’t been working too well lately, has it, copper?”

Bobby snorted a laugh, but it sounded cynical.

Tommy wet his lips and grabbed Bobby’s hand. “Maybe I am begging a little, all right?”

“Begging for what, Tom? More time? Another chance? You’ve got it, okay? Now, let me get some sleep.”

“Ya know, you’re a real pain in the ass.”

Bobby did laugh then. Bitter and nettled, but a laugh nonetheless. “That’s really rich coming from you, Mr. O’Shea.”

Another good point. “Yeah, well. I guess we deserve each other, then.”

Something about that softened Bobby. He turned onto his side, facing Tommy, squeezed Tommy’s fingers in his own. “Maybe so,” he whispered, exhaling a heavy breath, like he’d been holding it all damn day. “So what are we supposed to do with each other?”

That was Tommy’s out. His chance to make a joke, make a pass, fuck Bobby stupid until he forgot what they were fighting about in the first place. But not tonight.

“I think we should get married.”

He’d managed to shock Bobby a few times since they’d been together, but maybe not that much. Tommy didn’t think anyone had ever been so shocked in the history of the world.

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