Page 27 of Stand By Me

Mario rubbed the back of his neck. "It made more sense to wait when I didn't know if anything would even come out of this."

"But something did come out of it," Andie pointed out gently.

"I know, I know. But like I told you before, there's a history there, which means Ben won't be happy about this, today, tomorrow, or next week. So yeah, I've been stalling, and I know I'll have to talk to him soon, I just… I'm not looking forward to it."

"We can tell." Andie put her hand over his wrist and squeezed it gently. "I get why you didn't want to tell him before anything happened, but now that it's happening, you have no choice."

"He may not like to hear it," Carina said, "but he'll like it even less if he finds out too late."

Mario sagged in his seat, no longer hungry. "Yeah."

Andie offered him a sad smile. "It may go better than you think."

As much as he appreciated her optimism, he knew it was definitely unwarranted in this case. If Mario were to guess it, it was more likely to goworsethan he expected instead of better. Way, way worse.

So even though a part of him knew he wasn't helping the situation by putting that conversation off, the rest of him hoped for some kind of miracle as he waited for the right moment.

Who knew, maybe Ben and Clay would work things out once and for all sometime very soon, and this whole thing would stop being an issue?

Yeah, right. As if.

Before Mario could spiral further down this path, his phone pinged with a new message from Clay.

I can't wait to see you tomorrow.

He grinned.

Me too,he typed. I had a great time last night.

It was such a relief not to be the first one to reach out. Mario had gotten so used to always being the one making an effort with any guy he was seeing that he hardly noticed it anymore—at least until now.

He was about to share it with Andie and Carina, when the next text came in.

Best first date I've ever had.

Mario stared at the words in disbelief. Not that it wasn't true for him as well, but he would never come out and say it—in person or in a text.

Yet now that Clay had done it first, Mario figured it was safe to reciprocate.

Same here. Not even a competition.

A grinning emoji he got in return made him want to laugh, the joy bubbling inside of him again. Carina cleared her throat and Andie chuckled next to her, but he ignored them to send the same emoji back.

Let's hope we can continue in the same vein, he added a moment later and held his breath as the three dots appeared on his screen right away.

The bar is set pretty high, but I like our chances, Clay sent.

So do I, Mario wrote back, his heart beating too fast.So do I.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

First thing after getting to the office on Friday morning, Clay headed to the comm center hoping to catch Eddie coming off the night shift.

As it turned out, he didn't have to hurry. Eddie was there, in sweatpants and a threadbare T-shirt, talking with James who lounged low in his seat, his nape resting on the back of his chair. He looked like he had started to change after a tactical op and abandoned the idea halfway through—he still had his boots and black trousers on, but he'd swapped the black top of the uniform for a maroon T-shirt.

The office was otherwise empty, which wasn't all that surprising—the day shift wouldn't start for another thirty minutes.

At the sight of Clay, both men sat up.

---