Devour || AU VegasPete Fanfic

Chapter 17: A Bad Date (Arm×Pol Side Story)

When Pete called last night asking for Arm's SUV to help him move, Arm thought he was finally going to cash in one of his day-offs and have a me-day. But luck was not on his side today.

Pete came and took the car early morning and Arm decided to go for a run. But halfway through it started to get cloudy. Arm didn't want to get soaked so he made his way back to the apartment.

When he got into the elevator and the door was about to close, a hand came in between and stopped it. Arm watched as Ben strolled into the small space. He felt unease creep into him.

Ben had been ignoring him since that uneventful night. Arm wasn't exactly complaining about that because he didn't want to see Ben as well but it didn't make things any less awkward when they ran into each other.

Though now that Arm thought about it, in the last few days, he and Ben had been running into each other quite a bit. Elevator, parking lot, the cafe next to the building. If Arm didn't know any better he would think some of it was intentional from Ben's side. But why would he do that? He didn't even like Arm at this point.

"Hey," Ben said without looking at him.

Arm snapped his head toward the man in surprise. Well, he didn't see that coming for sure.

"Hey."

The silence was deafening in the elevator. The awkwardness made Arm a little nauseated. The building's elevator was infamous for its slow pace. They still had 7 floors to go. Luck was not on his side today.

"Go on a date with me."

Arm was aware that his mouth was hanging open slightly. The other man didn't even look at him. He was still staring ahead. The words hung in the air. Thick and suffocating.

What?

No. This couldn't be happening. He must have heard it wrong. Ben wasn't asking him out on a date. The man looked at him with so much disappointment the last time they were on talking terms. He didn't get to swoop in after all this time and just ask Arm out like that.

"Whatever happened that night," Ben was looking at him now, his eyes seemed passive. He seemed passive. "let's forget that and start fresh."

Arm realized he was feeling slightly irritated by Ben. Ben got mad at him and kicked him out of his apartment simply because Arm had refused him sex. Wasn't that shallow of him? And wasn't it pretentious of him to assume that Arm would just agree after everything that happened?

"Look, Ben—" Arm started hesitantly but Ben cut him off.

"Are you seeing someone at this moment?" he asked.

Arm hated the fact that he couldn't answer 'yes' immediately. Because he wasn't dating someone at the moment. He would love to but it was more complicated than expected.

He and Pol needed to figure out things. Yes, they were definitely headed toward the "more than friend" lane but it was a long way and Arm was afraid of putting a label on it without having Pol's consent.

"You're not," Ben seemed to catch on. "So why not give this a chance?"

"Because I don't want to, Ben," Arm said as calmly as possible. "Just like I didn't want things to escalate further that night. You should respect my decisions when the situations include me. You seem to struggle with that."

The lift was on their floor now. It had been for a few minutes now. None of them seemed to notice it before, the conversation being too attention-consuming.

"And if it isn't clear, let me say it out loud. It doesn't matter whether I am seeing someone or not. I don't want to date you. That should be enough reason. Just it like a 'no' should be enough reason for you to stop your advances."