Two weeks earlier

“What do you mean, you can’t go?” Liam stared at Ben in shock, his blue eyes wide with disbelief. Unconsciously his hand went up to push a lock of light brown hair back from his forehead. Ben was joking, right? “We’ve been planning this for months.”

But Ben wasn’t smiling. He stood there, slightly taller than Liam’s five seven, still wearing his office shirt and trousers, short black hair neatly combed, and looked apologetic, his lips turning down at the corners. “I’m sorry babe.”

He reached out a placating hand but Liam jerked away.

Ben frowned. “I did warn you when the Abbott deal was being negotiated I might not be able to get away. Mitch called a meeting this morning. The contract has been signed and he wants everyone on this fulltime for the next two months. There’ll be lots of overtime too I expect.” He sounded almost eager.

“But we’ve been planning this since Christmas,” Liam protested, a cold chill growing around his heart. “I’ve been looking forward to it. We both have.” Hadn’t they?

He and Ben had been dating for the last few months, sleeping together on weekends and occasionally skirting around the possibility of moving in. Things had been a bit quiet between them lately, what with Ben’s work during the day and his own job as assistant chef in the evenings. In fact his desire to spend more time with Ben had been an added incentive for him to take the plunge and pursue his dream as a pastry chef. And he had been lucky enough to get a new, daytime, job starting at a patisserie in a month, after their holiday.

The holiday which was supposed to put the romance back into their relationship.

He could still see the picture in his mind’s eye, two lovers on the beach, oblivious to the sea lapping gently around them as they kissed ...

It was supposed to be their romantic getaway, an adventure of a lifetime. He had secretly hoped, if everything went well, it might pave the way for him to move in with Ben when they returned.

Liam was fighting back tears but Ben didn’t even sound particularly disappointed.

“I know babe but it’s just not possible right now. Maybe in a couple of months we can look at it again.” Sweetly reasonable.

“But I want to go now!” Liam bit back the words, aware of how childish they sounded. Instead, he reminded him, “It’s all booked.” Fighting a rearguard action.

“I know we’ll probably lose our deposit, but my overtime will cover it.” Ben’s chocolate brown eyes studied his lover warily before he ventured a small smile, “Good thing we haven’t paid for the tickets yet, huh?”

Liam made an effort not to glance across to the printer, the printer which held the two e-tickets he had finalised so excitedly only a few minutes, a lifetime, earlier.

Suddenly he felt a wave of anger sweeping in to replace the shock. He was grieving over shattered dreams. Ben was worried about the fucking money for god’s sake! Maybe they just weren’t on the same wavelength after all.

“Don’t worry about it,” Liam said stormily. “I’m sure I can find somebody else to take with me!”