Thursday, January 30

Trudging through the apartment door, Eden threw his bag onto the floor. He wanted nothing more than to crawl into bed and never leave. Seeing Alex out of the corner of his eye, he knew that wouldn’t be possible.

“Why are you back so soon? I thought you said you were staying late to finish some work.” She stepped next to him, arms folded and green-grey eyes examining him. “What happened?”

“You don’t want to know.”

He shuffled into the kitchen, looking for something to eat, but everything required too much effort. For a reason he hoped to bury and forget forever, he felt drained. He had barely made it home from the bus stop and all he really wanted was to sleep. Alex stared, watching him fumble around, and now those eyes were judging him.

“Hungry?” Justin asked from the couch, not as perceptive as his girlfriend. “Since you’re home, we should go out. None of us have early classes tomorrow.”

Alex smiled and unfolded her arms. “Good idea! Let’s go out.”

“Can’t we just order a pizza or Chinese or something?” He really didn’t want to leave the apartment.

“No way,” she said, her smile turning sinister. There was something he wasn’t telling her and she was going to pry it from him. “I’m not in the mood for any of those things. And the three of us haven’t eaten out in a while.”

Justin was suddenly at her side, grinning along as her clueless accomplice. Eden frowned. He wasn’t a timid person, but he wasn’t usually assertive either, and he was going to lose this fight.

“I’m tired. I just want to stay here and relax.”

I just want to go crawl into a hole and die.

“Which is exactly why we should go out!" Alex exclaimed through a winner's smile. "Get you out of this funk you’re in.”

That was the end. Alex moved to grab her coat without waiting for a reply. He followed obediently, out the door, past the bus stop, and into town. Third-wheeling behind the loving couple, he kept his head low as they wandered through the short strip of Main Street until Alex pointed ahead.

“Let’s get Thai,” she happily suggested, looking at Eden over the arm comfortably hung around her shoulders. “Good?”

“We could have just ordered take-out,” he grumbled, unable to control the wrinkle in his brow. He knew she was doing this on purpose and yet he still came along anyway.

She huffed, copying his expression. “It’s not the same.”

“It’s exactly the same.”

Waving him quiet, she turned back, continuing down the sidewalk and into the cramped restaurant. After sitting and ordering, Eden slouched into the long booth and nursed his beer.

“Alright. Now tell us what happened.” Alex leaned over the table, gaze fixed on him.

He had to come up with something plausible that had nothing to do with the truth, but after a moment of thought, he remembered what a terrible liar he was.

“I just saw something... Something I really shouldn’t have seen.” He pouted his lips slightly and widened his blue eyes. “Can we please not talk about it? I seriously can’t tell you.”

Alex huffed again but nodded her surrender. “Fine. Whatever. But only if you stop being so lifeless. It’s not like you and it’s bringing me down.”

He agreed and forced a half smile onto his face. After a second beer and a stomach full of food, he began to put the day behind him and feel better. They chatted and laughed, listened to Alex’s most recent gossip, and by the third beer, he was relaxed and happy.

It had been a strange day, but that’s all it was. Just one day and it was over. Dean was Dean, and honestly, the money shouldn’t have been a surprise. He was probably too dense to realize it could mean something other than a nice gesture to buy him breakfast. He might not be the best lay he ever had, but he was a decent guy and he should feel lucky to have found him among the rest.

And the greenhouse – he’d been on campus almost every day for over a semester now and had never seen that man before. Maybe their paths wouldn’t cross again. And if they did, the worst that would happen was some embarrassment. Though, anyone would have been turned on by that scene. It was a natural reaction. What did he have to be embarrassed of? He wasn’t the one fucking someone in the college greenhouse in the middle of the day.

Exactly! Fuck that guy. It’s not my problem he’s a perv.

“You have that look on your face again,” Alex pointed out with a frown. “Gaaaah... I really wanna know what happened.”

Justin rubbed her back and just smiled, knowing she was buzzed and Eden didn’t want to talk about it. “Maybe we should head out? Give someone else the table? We’ve been here awhile.”

Eden nodded and raised his hand, gesturing for the check. As they waited, he reached into a pocket. It was empty. His hands immediately searched across his body, rummaging and patting, but he found nothing. He’d left everything in his bag.

“Shit.” Justin eyed him and he shrugged. “This one’s on you, dude.”

“What? I don’t have any money. I just followed you two out of the apartment.”

“What?” Eden stared in disbelief at his friend. “It was your idea to come out in the first place!”

Justin mimicked his shrug, then shook his girlfriend. She mumbled incoherently and lifted her head from his shoulder. Her little, twenty-one-year-old body had the lowest tolerance and her buzz was turning into sleepiness.

“Babe, wake up. We need to pay the check.”

“Huh? Then pay?” Her voice was soft and confused, and she could barely squint her heavy eyelids open.

“We don’t have any money, idiot,” Eden said, and the corners of her mouth dropped at the insult. “You dragged us out and we forgot our wallets.”

“Oh. In my pocket then.”

Justin dug through her coat, but just shrugged again. Eden groaned. He really should have just crawled into a hole and died. From his periphery, he caught the waitress heading their way and slid a little further down in his seat.

“I’ll bring her home, then come back and pay.” Wrapping the coat around Alex’s shoulders, Justin gently ran his fingers through his girlfriend’s hair, lifting the long strands up over her collar. “Order food to go or something to kill time.”

Eden could only nod, the entire situation ridiculous. At this point, it fit the rest of his day well, and he drank the last few sips of his beer as Justin maneuvered Alex to the end of the bench.

Before he could hoist her up, the waitress was at their table. She placed the check down with a smile. “Have a good night.”

“What?” Eden looked at her in surprise, then glanced at the bill. There was a zero balance. “But, we didn’t pay this?”

The woman pointed across the crowded room. “That table over there already paid.” Too busy to wait for a reaction, she bowed and headed back into the kitchen.

Eden’s eyes slowly shifted in that direction and there, smiling playfully at him, was the man from the greenhouse. That beautiful, mischievous, charismatic man was staring back at him, brown eyes amused and shining.

I DEFINITELY should have just crawled into a hole and died.