Page 44 of Hold Me Down

Travis reared back as if Dave had hit him, and when the words registered in Dave's head, he understood why.

Fuck. He'd gone way over the line.

Gripping his crutch tightly, he tried to figure out how to backtrack, now that the rush of anger drained out of him at the look on Travis's face. Before Dave could find the right words, though, Travis headed for the door.

"Fine, have it your way. I'm going out, so I won't be here hovering over you and… and forcing you to do my bidding, apparently. Do whatever you want. But for fuck's sake, use your brain before you drop a weight on your head, you absolute asshole."

Dave held his breath as he listened to Travis walking away.

He wouldn't really leave, would he? He only just got back, maybe he would go upstairs or…

When the front door shut loudly enough to be heard in the gym room, Dave fell back down to sit on the bench.

What the fuck had he done?

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Shutting the door with a bang brought him no more than two seconds of satisfaction, but Travis was too pissed to care at this point.

He was done for the day—done with analyzing, done with trying, done with everything that had brought him here: tense, and tired, and with a headache from hell.

What he needed was fun and easy, but he wasn't going to find it at home tonight, so he was going for the next best thing.

He decided to order a ride to his favorite pick-up bar.

It was startling that it had taken him a few seconds to remember the address, but then he realized he hadn't been there in months. He'd gone once during the whole Dave's-dating-now phase, but even before that it had been a while, too.

Perks of having a regular fuck buddy at home, Travis figured once he accepted the offered ride in the app.Even if said buddy is a fucking asshole at the moment.

After the session with Doctor Kumar, he'd had every intention to go back home, have a quiet night in, and try not to push any of Dave's buttons. He'd been looking forward to lying on the couch and forgetting everything the doc had said because it was too much to process in a day.Hell, he'd been hoping Dave would be up for relieving at least some of the tension with orgasms, but if not, it would have been fine to simply chill together.

What hadn't been fine, however, was that a grown-ass man risked his safety for absolutely no reason at all.

The hypocrisy of that thought didn't hit Travis until he was already in the car, but he pushed it aside for the night. He was done with overthinking—or even thinking in general.

He needed to relax, and what better way to do so than a night out after a few weeks of quiet nights in.

He chatted with the driver for the rest of the way, exchanging opinions on the NBA playoffs so far (underwhelming) and the next season (a shakeup, hopefully), and by the time Travis walked into the bar, he was in much better spirits.

The club was far from crowded this early in the evening, but he knew it would pick up in less than an hour, the usual crowd skirting a bit older than the young guys who didn't even leave the house before nine thirty and could dance the night away.

Still, as Travis walked towards the bar, he clocked a few guys as possible options. Two of them were familiar enough that he had a feeling they'd hooked up before, so he took them off the list, but the other three seemed new, which sent a bit of excitement down Travis's back.

It had been way too long since he flirted with a hot stranger, that was for sure.

It had been even longer since his last bathroom hookup. Whenever they'd gone to a bar, there was no point of dragging Dave out of the booth and into the bathroom when they could just as well go home and fuck in a bed—or against the front door, on a few memorable occasions.

Damn, was Travis getting old if he preferred a bed over a questionable bathroom stall?

He hoped not.

Besides, tonight wasn't about that. He'd rarely followed a guy to his place, and he'd definitely never taken anyone to the house he shared with Dave, so his current choices were the bathroom or the shadowy corner out the back.

Both could do in a pinch.

"Can I buy you a drink?" A deep male voice came from the left and a moment later, there was a tall, black-haired man on the stool next to Travis. "Two of what he's having," the guy told the bartender without waiting for the answer, but when he turned towards him, Travis saw a nice enough smile and a jawline that could cut glass, so he decided to let it go.

"It looks like you already did," he said with a raised eyebrow.

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