DON'T BREAK THE RULES

Chapter 24 - Talk

Joe had not seen Jamie in days.

He left early morning before Joe woke up in the morning, and the morning Joe had woken up to purposely cross him, he returned to his bedroom and waited until he heard Joe's bedroom door close before leaving his own. It was ever since the night they had kissed that Jamie had been avoiding him even worse than before and although Joe had been embarrassed about his bold actions while he was tipsy, he had never thought it would have made Jamie so disgusted that he stopped being around him.

Regardless, Joe continued to work around the appartement as if all was alright, and had left a few times on dates with Connor, which surprisingly, had been going extremely well. Although Connor had agreed to take it slow and rebuild their romance, he seemed to be ready to be committed once again. His mouth preached about all the promises and love he could give Joe, but Joe could not help but think about the kiss he had with Jamie.

It had been for barely a second, but it was engraved in his brain that he could feel Jamie's rough but endearing texture of his lips by simply thinking about. And Connor had noticed Joe spacing out numerous times during dinner, which made him ask, "What's in that head of yours Joe?"

"Sorry?" Joe had been staring at the floor for the past five minutes without realizing it and Connor wanted an answer.

He leaned forward with a smirk, "Don't play dumb with me—tell me what's going on."

A nervous chuckle escaped Joe's lips. "You might...get jealous..."

"Let me guess," he lowered his eyes for a second. "You and Jamie kissed?"

Joe blinked. "How did you—"

"I know everything, sweetheart." Connor leaned backwards and licked the rim of his champagne glass before chugging the rest. He puckered his lips before he said, "I also know that you two weren't dating and he lied."

Although Joe wanted to find out how Connor knew all about Jamie, his priority was to stop Connor from being jealous since they had been doing good so far. "It was in the moment and I was drunk—"

"I know all the details, Joe. You don't have to explain it to me. I'm not mad." Connor smiled. "Besides, we've been doing good. As long as you promise it won't happen again?"

A bright grin pulled Joe's lips apart and he rapidly nodded his head. "Yes, I promise."

But what if he wanted it to happen again?

Joe continued to slide the mop across the kitchen floor, seeing the glistening of the ones he had recently done. It was not as if Jamie was not handsome, but never could he ever even attract Jamie; that was probably why he was avoiding him! He must have been disgusted, and honestly, Joe was not ready for that conversation. Maybe space was better for the both of them and Joe would simply await the day Jamie would start talking to him once again.

It had been about two weeks since the kiss had happened Jamie had yet to talk to Joe. Connor and Joe's relationship was starting to deepen, to the point that Joe spent a few nights at Connor's mansion. A few nights soon became every night, that Jamie would return to an empty home after work and leave the home in the morning to Joe walking inside the appartement. It came to the point that neither of them even said hi to one another and that subtly caused Joe's heart to ache.

However, little did Jamie know that Joe had big news for him.

It was the first time in weeks that Joe had been home when Jamie returned from work. The apartment was as spotless as it always was and Jamie eyed Joe before stepping around him and heading for his bedroom without saying anything.

Joe had even cooked dinner; Alfredo pasta with chicken and Caesar salad, but Jamie glanced towards it without any emotion before opening his bedroom door and disappearing behind it. Although Joe was nervous about this, he had to tell Jamie at some point and it took a few minutes to build enough courage to finally knock on Jamie's bedroom door.

"Mhm?" Jamie mumbled from the other side.

Joe swallowed hard before exhaling a long breath and asking, "Can I talk to you?"

"Super busy," and that was it. But this was an emergency, and Joe knocked again. This time, Jamie sounded annoyed. "I said I'm busy." His tone had been tight.

"I need to talk to you though," Joe pleaded, "it's urgent."

"Yes, we'll talk later." The dismissive tone was not going to be taken by Joe this time.

He folded his arms. "Master Jamie, I'm not leaving until we talk."

"Then I guess you're not leaving," he snorted.

Joe paused for a moment, furrowing his brows. He only needed maybe five minutes of his time, but Jamie was most likely too afraid to speak to him face to face.

Why because he thinks I'm disgusting? Scared that I'll kiss him again?

"Ever since I kissed you, you've been avoiding me. Is it because you think I'm gross?" Joe did not realize he had said that until it left his mouth and there was only complete silence that resonated afterwards.

Until Jamie suddenly repeated, "Gross?"

"You are, aren't you?" Before Jamie could even respond, Joe continued, "Well I'll be out of your hair anyways so you don't have to avoid being home anymore. Connor asked me to move-in with him."

That sentence alone seemed to have created such tension in the atmosphere, since Joe heard Jamie inhale a sharp breath. Although silence resonated, Joe squeezed his arms tighter together and waited, not hearing a single movement inside Jamie's room.

Then, a soft trembling voice asked, "When are you leaving?"

Joe's eyebrows raised; he had never heard such pain echoed through Jamie's voice. He cleared his throat, his feet shuffling as he replied, "Tomorrow."

There was another pause.

Soon, Jamie's door burst open and with a bright smile, he cheered, "How about we drink to that?"