Stay (Boy × Boy) ✔

CHAPTER 3

It was Sunday morning and the mansion was quiet: no sound of a movie from the living room, nothing from the private pool either.

The owner of the house was in a business trip, and would be for almost a week more, and the owner's son was nowhere near the site. William hadn't left the country nor gotten kidnapped, he had simply gotten tired of the deserted house and driven to see his dad. Initially William had planned to stay only for Saturday evening, but ended up spending the night.

Matthew, just like his ex-wife, was often away for his business, but he happened to have the weekend off.

Even if William's dad had left the mansion to William and his mom, his new house didn't look any less good. He lived in a modern two floor house, that had a beautiful seascape and a big yard. The house had barely any walls, because those were replaced with huge windows, so the house was full of natural light.

Everything was fully automated in the house, which was still baffling for William. The mansion he lived in had all the possible conveniences, but it didn't have curtains that could be controlled by voice — having a house that you could command was just too sci-fi for him.

The interior was also modern to the last detail: the floors were light pinewood parquet, but everything else was either black or white. It was clearly a house of someone who was rich and knew what design was all about. That person was who else but Matthew Davies.

He was near his fifties and there was a hint of grey in his hair, but nothing else in his looks gave away his age. He was tall like William and he had the same brown hair, but his eyes were blue.

Actually Matthew wasn't that much a looker — one could say that he had a face that didn't draw attention, that it was just a face like any other man you walk past on the streets without looking twice had — but he was in good shape and dressed up like any wealthy businessman should. Even if he didn't have a face one would look twice, his charisma and demeanours drew attention.

The weekend off in the Davies family rarely meant that there was no work to do or no clients to meet, it was more like time off the office building and business trips.

William, who actually just wanted to spend time with his dad, had to attend a dinner his dad hosted at the house on Sunday. It was for his dad's associates and their wives, so William didn't understand why his dad wanted him to join them.

Matthew had said something about making connections and giving a good impression, but he seemed to forget that William wasn't the kind of person who could easily make an impression. Still, as he was a good and obedient son, he agreed.

He was wearing a grey custom-made suit, that just happened to fit him perfectly even if it was made two years ago for some charity event he had had to participate in.

William didn't know if he felt any more comfortable in his current company than he had felt just two days ago. There were two men, in their fine suits, a little older than his dad and their wives wearing beautiful dresses and elegant makeup.

Matthew hadn't re-married after divorcing from William's mom, and these days he seemed to be married only with his business, thus there was only his son representing his family.

The food was exquisite. For starters they had fish with white asparagus, for main prawns with mirepoix and red rice and for dessert dark chocolate truffle tart with black cherries.

There was absolutely nothing wrong with the food, but William felt like he couldn't unwind even for a second, and he was sure eating all that was going to cause him stomach cramps.

He spent the entire dinner making sure his posture was good and that he was nodding and smiling at the right time, even if he had no idea what the others were talking about. The dinner lasted about three agonising hours and William was exhausted after the last guest walked out of the door.