When Love Fades

Chapter 8 - Shifting Bonds III

Naruto jogged down the long steps from Jiraiya's front door to his car, excitement pumping through him. He pulled out his phone and called Kiba before he'd even sat down in his car. Kiba picked up on the first ring.

"How did it go?" Kiba asked excitedly. "Did he offer you the job?"

Naruto closed the car door and buckled his seatbelt, grinning. "Well, he said he liked my stuff, but I have to do a trial project for him first. Some picky architect keeps rejecting all the photos of his buildings that they want to feature in one of his magazines. So he's giving me a crack at it! I'll have to travel to a few different cities this week, but he's going to cover my expenses."

"Dude, that's awesome! We gotta celebrate."

"Kiba..." Naruto laughed, but he felt rush of happiness at his friend's words. "... We just celebrated last night. I have to actually do the project first. What if the architect hates my stuff?"

"Not gonna happen. You're awesome. All your teachers in college thought you were amazing. You just got stuck in a rut here. This is your big break! We have to celebrate it. It's like... best bro's law or something."

Naruto considered it for a moment. He would be out of town for pretty much the rest of the week and probably the weekend, too. Why not hang out with Kiba before he goes? He'd felt better than he had in months after spending time with his friends the other night. This would be good for him. And even if it didn't work out in the end, it was still cool that Jiraiya had picked him for the trial. After all, the man had said he doesn't give many people a shot at something like this.

"Ok, cool. Where should I meet you?"

"Let's go to a club. I'll pick you up at your place so you don't have to drive. You're going to be in no shape to drive tonight after I'm done with you tonight!"

Naruto laughed. It had been a really long time since he'd gone out to a club. "Ok. Let me just call Sasuke and see if he can come. I'll meet you there either way.

"You better not bail on me, dude."

"No worries about that. I'll be back home in about an hour, unless traffic sucks."

They hung up and Naruto started the car, quickly calling Sasuke. He knew it was unlikely that his boyfriend would be able to get out early to hang out with them, but he hoped Sasuke would at least meet him there when he finished work. Naruto had wanted to tell Sasuke face-to-face about the possible job offer, but he knew that Sasuke wouldn't bother to come if it seemed like just a random night out in the middle of the work-week, so he'd have to tell him at least some of it on the phone.

Naruto was surprised when Sasuke's phone went directly to voicemail. Sasuke never turned his phone off. It was actually something they used to fight about all the time, back when Sasuke was actually home.

After he got promoted to team leader, Sasuke's office had given him a BlackBerry. At first, Naruto had thought it was great because Sasuke would be able to do more work from home. But he quickly realized that what it really meant was that now Sasuke couldn't escape work wherever they were. And because the company was global and the projects he worked on were large, it seemed like that fucking thing was always buzzing at any time of day. They'd had a huge blow-out one time when they'd gone out to dinner and Sasuke had spent the entire time dealing with emails from work.

Sasuke had said that it was just an emergency that had come up, but it didn't change the fact that one of the few nights that they'd tried to spend together had ended up with Naruto basically watching Sasuke work.

Naruto disconnected, then tried again, his call going directly to voicemail a second time. He supposed Sasuke's battery could have died, though even that would be odd given that he had a charger for the damn thing in his office, car, and their bedroom.

He decided to leave a message anyway, assuming Sasuke would check it soon given his obsession with the damn device. But just in case the phone had died, Naruto also left a message on their home phone so at least Sasuke would hear it when he got back.

"Hey, Sasuke. Kiba's taking me out to celebrate a new commission I just got. It's kind of a big deal, and I'll be gone most of the week on it.

I'll text you which club we're at. Would be great if you could swing by after you're done at work. If not, I'll just see you when I get home, but it might be late."

Naruto pulled out into the evening traffic. He wouldn't hope to hard that Sasuke would show up early enough to actually spend time with them there. They'd fought about this kind of thing so many times over the past year, and Naruto wasn't going to ruin his good mood by getting mad again about the same old shit. If Sasuke didn't care enough to make an effort to spend any time with him, Naruto was done with trying to force it.

A year ago, Naruto would have been a lot more upset about something this big happening in his life and not being able to talk with Sasuke about it. But now, even though he was still excited about what Sasuke would say, it didn't feel like his whole world revolved around it like it used to. Kiba, Shikamaru, and Shino had been happy for him.

Maybe that was enough. Naruto knew that he had chased Sasuke too hard and put too much weight on what Sasuke's opinions of things were. Maybe now it was all just catching up with him.

Naruto mentally shrugged. Either way, he was looking forward to having fun tonight. It had been a long time since he'd really been excited about something that was happening in his life, and he was going to enjoy it for once.

With or without Sasuke.

______♡♡♡______

TBC..

Thank you from the bottom of my heart to those who've voted already. ☺️
I'll be back soon with the new chapter..
Take care and stay healthy and hydrated. love you all 🥰❤️

Cr : NaruLove11
1101 words