"Come on, man! It's just a date, not even a date, really. Just accompanying a lovely woman to a wedding!" Beaux whined as he followed Lonny up the sidewalk, trying to keep up with him
"Dude, I don't know, I haven't even met her! What if we have a terrible time?" Lonny said, glancing back at the older man.
Beaux was trying to convince him to take one of his friends to a wedding because her date bailed on her last minute(it totally wasn't to try and get Lonny to move on from Andy and Olivia since the dumbass won't actually make a move).
She sounded nice and Beaux showed him a picture of her, she was definitely pretty, but Lonny didn't neccesarily want to go to a wedding for people he doesn't know with a woman who he also doesn't know.
"You'll have a great time! Plus CC and I will be there, so you'll have someone to hang out with!" Beaux tried, he really needed to just put himself out there and go on some fucking dates if he wasn't going to ask the two people he's actually interested in on a date.
Lonny stopped walking and sighed, staring up at the sky for a long moment before he nodded. "Alright fine, but only as a favor to you!"
"Good! I'll tell Rheta that you'll come." The drummer said with a pleased grin.
The two parted ways once they reached their cars and drove off. Lonny was going to need to buy a suit or at the very least, rent one, if he thought any of Andy's would fit, he would just borrow his. That white sweater of his with some slacks might look nice?
He hated this, he didn't even want to go to that wedding, let alone with Beaux's friend. Maybe Beaux and CC were right though? Maybe he did need to just try to move on.
He pulled into the parking garage and stepped into the elevator, googling what qualified as 'formal enough' for a wedding.
He walked down the hall once the door slid open and opened his apartment door with a sigh.
"Well you sound happy." Andy said with a laugh from the couch, turning off the audiobook he was listening to.
"What is formal?" The guitarist asked.
"What?" Andy asked, his eyebrows furrowing.
"What's appropriate for a wedding? I don't have a suit and I don't think yours would fit me." Lonny explained, sitting down next to the older man.
"Well, a nice shirt and some dress pants should be fine. Whose getting married and when is it?" The model said, turning to face Lonny a bit better.
"Some friends of Beaux's. This girl he knows is supposed to be in the wedding but her date bailed on her so he asked me if I could take her, I think it's in two weeks?" Lonny said, the sweater and slacks should work fine then, but he'd still send a picture to the drummer just in case.
"Oh." Andy said. He didn't like the feeling that came over him at the thought of Lonny going out with someone. "Do you even know this girl?" He questioned, tilting his head to the side to watch the younger man carefully as he responded.
"No, but it's not a big deal." Lonny replied, standing up to walk into his bedroom to grab the clothes so he could look at them together, maybe try them on. "Would a black peacoat look nice with a sweater and slacks?"
"Yeah, that will look great, but why the hell are you going out with a girl you don't even know?" Andy said, redirecting the conversation back to the topic at hand as he felt a certain feeling that he wouldn't name fill him more and more.
Lonny turned and looked at Andy in confusion. "I'm doing it as a favor, I have to; besides, I haven't been on a date in forever, so it might be fun." He shrugged.
Andy stared at him for a long moment before he scoffed. "You don't even want to fucking go!" He pointed out.
"What do you mean? I never said that!" Lonny defended, folding his arms across his chest. The older man was right, he didn't want to go, but how would he know that?
"You literally just said that you have to go, not that you want to!" Andy said with an eyeroll. Lonny wore his heart on his sleeve, he couldn't hide how he actually felt about the situation.
"Ok and? I don't see how that's any of your business!" The guitarist said, stepping around him to walk back into the living room. He was sure the older man had good intentions, but in that moment it was doing nothing but irritating him.
Andy followed him. "Well excuse me for not wanting you to go somewhere you clearly don't even want to go! Now I'll have to deal with your miserable ass from now until that fucking wedding!"
"Oh my God! It's not a big deal! Maybe I'll hit it off with her, you don't know, I need to hit it off with someone!" Lonny exclaimed, spinning around to glare daggers at the model.
"Oh really? Since when do you fucking care? You haven't been on a single fucking date since you moved here, but suddenly you're willing to go to a fucking stranger's wedding to get laid?" Andy growled back, he didn't know why he cared so much... ok that was a lie, he did, he just didn't want to admit it.
"Fuck you! Am I not allowed to try and meet someone?!" The guitarist huffed out in anger.
"That's not what I said! I just want to know why you're going on a date with someone you don't even want to go out with?" Andy said, raising his voice slightly, but not yelling, he would never yell at the younger man.
"WELL MAYBE I NEED TO MEET SOMEONE SO I CAN GET THE FUCK OVER YOU AND OLIVIA!" Lonny shouted, all of the frustration from damn near months of pining had finally bubbled to the surface.
Andy's eyes widened and his jaw dropped.
'No fucking way.' There was no way he just said what the model thinks he said, he had to have heard him wrong.
All color drained from Lonny's face as he realized what he had just said. "I- I-" He tried desperately to think of something, but instead opted to spin around and walk out of the apartment quickly.
"Lonny, wait!" Andy called once he regained his ability to speak, but it was too late, the younger man was gone. Fuck.
'Should I go after him?' He thought to himself, but his legs were frozen in place, what the hell was he supposed to say to him when he caught up with him?
He glanced at the clock on the stove and sighed, he needed to get ready for his therapy session.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Aww! Whose a good baby! You're a good baby and you're so smart and pretty!" CC cooed at the pitbull who was vibrating with excitement as he walked over to her cage.
He opened the door and slipped inside, sitting on the concrete floor as the dog climbed into his lap and started licking at his face.
CC laughed and rubbed her side affectionately. "You're such a sweetie!"
"She looks sweet." Lonny commented, making the older man jump in surprise.
"Lonny? What are you doing, buddy?" CC asked, while he was happy to see his friend, he could tell something was wrong.
"So...if worse comes to worse, can I move in with you?" The guitarist asked softly as he sat down on the ground next to the kennel door.
"What? Hold on, hold on, back up! What happened?" CC asked in utter confusion.
"So Andy and I were arguing about something stupid and I- I may have admitted that I had feelings for him and Olivia." Lonny said, burying his face in his hands in embarrassment.
"WHAT?- Oh sorry, melon." CC apologized sweetly when he startled the dog. "What?" He asked again at a much more agreeable volume.
"I don't even know how it happened! Andy was being a dick about that stupid fucking wedding and kept saying that I shouldn't go because I don't even want to." Lonny started to explain.
"Do you want to though?" CC asked.
"...well no, but that's not the point! He was being all weird about me being this girls date and finally I snapped and accidentally said that the only reason I was going was to try and get over him and Livvie." The guitarist sighed, how could he be so stupid? He managed to keep those feelings from the model for months, but one stupid argument destroyed that in a matter of seconds.
"Ok well one, I'm sorry it happened that way, that sounds really fucking embarrassing... but..." CC trailed off, unsure if the younger man wanted to hear what he had to say.
"But what?" Lonny prodded, what's the worst that it could be?
"It sounds like Andy was jealous." The older man said.
Lonny stared at him in confusion and scoffed. "Why would he be jealous? He has Olivia-"
"Oh my God, you're a fucking idiot! He's jealous of that girl, not you! He's jealous because you were going out with someone else! That's why it was such a big deal to him!" CC exclaimed in frustration, he was so sick of these dumb fucks he calls his friends.
"I- no- he was just- I'm not- he's-" Lonny stuttered over his words, unsure of what to say to that. It sounded right, it was the only logical explanation to Andy's reaction, but he couldn't even begin to wrap his brain around the possibility that Andy felt the same way.
"Yes, I'm right and you know I am." CC said gently. He already knew Andy had feelings for Lonny, it was obvious and he was pretty sure Olivia also wanted the guitarist as well.
"Ok, let's say that you are right, what am I supposed to do about it?" Lonny asked.
"You talk to them, dumbass." CC laughed, reaching through the chain link of the kennel to ruffle Lonny's hair playfully.
"What am I supposed to say? 'Hey, so I'm in love with both of you, is it cool if we all date? If not that's fine, just don't kick me out or move out, I can't afford this place without a roommate' that will definitely go over well." Lonny said with a sigh.
"My God, you are dramatic. No wonder you're into Andy." CC joked. "But yeah, maybe tweak it a little, other than that I feel like that's a pretty solid line of communication." He shrugged, making Lonny scoff.
"Do you want to get something to eat? I'm starving." The guitarist said, wanting to take his mind off of everything for a while.
"Sure, let me just feed the babies, then we can go." The older man said, kissing the dog on top of her head before he stood up.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Andy watched as a bird sat on the windowsill next to him, hopping along the edge without a care in the world on that beautiful Thursday morning, it had rained for several days and while he understood they needed it, that didn't mean he enjoyed a second of it.
If he was being honest, the only thing playing in his mind was what Lonny had said when they argued. He loved Andy and he loved Olivia. Fuck.
It did explain the odd behavior from the younger man over the past several weeks, but he didn't know how to deal with it or address it. The problem isn't that Lonny had feelings for them, the problem was that Andy reciprocated them.
He shouldn't have said anything about the wedding, he should've just kept his jealousy to himself, none of this would have happened if he had just kept his damn mouth shut.
"-and I think you should start- Andy? Are you listening?" His therapist, Marissa asked when she noticed him staring out the window.
Andy startled slightly and turned to face her. "Hmm? Yeah, no. I was listening." He said even though he most certainly wasn't.
"No you weren't, but that's fine. Why don't we talk about whatever has you distracted instead." Marissa said, crossing her legs to get more comfortable.
She was a fairly short, curvy latina woman in her mid forties. Andy started going to her a while after he and Mike broke up, he was aware that he should've been going far sooner, but his mental health had declined so much in that year after the relationship ended, he knew it was either start therapy or... something worse.
"Nothing's distracting me-"
"Ah ah ah! No bullshitting, you know that." The therapist said waving an accusatory finger at him. Andy had a hard time opening up to people, so they made the no bullshit rule. The minute the model walked through those doors, he wasn't allowed to dismiss things or sugarcoat them to Marissa.
"Ok sorry. I had a fight with my roommate and some things were said so now I'm really torn and confused." Andy sighed, he supposed there was no better of a place to hash all of that out than a therapists office.
"What was the fight about?" Marissa asked, clicking her pen open to write things down on her notebook. Andy had said that he and his roommate were now on good terms so she was curious to hear what changed that dynamic.
"It was so stupid, I don't even know why we both got so heated about it. Lonny agreed to go with this girl to a wedding and clearly didn't want to do it so I pointed it out and he got mad so we started arguing back and forth about it and he said-" Andy cut himself off, he didn't know if he could actually say it.
"What did he say, Andy?" The therapist pushed.
"That he loved me...and Olivia, that the only reason he was going was to try and move on." Andy whispered. The look of realization that was quickly followed by shame on Lonny's face broke Andy's heart.
"Oh...well that wasn't what I was expecting. I think the best thing to do in this situation is set some boundaries, talk to him about it, let him know that his feelings are completely valid, but are not reciprocated." Marissa replied. The situation was most definitely complicated, but Andy could navigate through it.
"Well that's kind of the problem, Rissa." The model said awkwardly, avoiding the older womans gaze in fear of judgment.
'Maybe this is the one time I should bullshit her.' He thought to himself as he picked at a hangnail.
"I'm not following, what's the problem here?" She inquired, tilting her head to the side.
"It is reciprocated...at least on my end, I'm not sure about Olivia." Andy admitted finally, it was the first time he had said it out loud. He couldn't take it back now, couldn't pretend that it wasn't real.
"Oh." That was all that Marissa said. That definitely did cause problems, but if her suspicions were correct, she may have a solution for this. "Andy, do you still love Olivia?" She asked softly.
"What? Of course I do! She's the best thing that's ever happened to me." Andy said earnestly, he couldn't imagine not having Olivia in his life, he loved her so damn much.
"And Lonny, you love him?" She continued, Andy had no idea where this was going.
"I- well I wouldn't say- he and I-" Andy sighed and dropped his head down into his hands. "Yeah I do." He did, fuck did he love that weird, shy, sweet, fucking beautiful human being that he lived with.
"Well then, I think I have a solution to your problem, Andy." Marissa said, closing her notebook as she glanced at the clock on the wall.
"What would that be?" Andy asked, desperately wanting to fix the situation he had inadvertently gotten himself into.
"I want you to tell Olivia." She said.
"What?! You can't be ser-"
"Let me finish. You love both of them, so talk to your partner and see if she would be open to the idea of polyamory." Marissa explained.
"Poly- are you serious?" The model prodded. It couldn't be that easy, could it?
"I am, if she isn't interested then I would suggest talking to your roommate, if the two of you can't live together platonically, then one of you need to move out." She said with a shrug.
"I- ok yeah, that makes sense." Andy relented with a sigh, glancing up at the clock and standing when he saw that their time was up.
"Oh and Andy?" Marissa said as she walked him to the door.
Andy turned his head and hummed in acknowledgement.
"From what you've told me, I don't think Olivia will be opposed to the idea." She said, patting him on the arm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lonny had decided to stay with CC for the time being, unable to face the model until he was sure he was ready.
He sat on the couch with Pasta's head in his lap, scratching gently at her ears when he saw he had gotten an email.
'Hello Lonny,
So sorry it has taken us so long to get back to you, some issues with a few venues has caused us to push back the tour, but we reviewed the videos you had sent in and we think you'd be perfect for the tour! Can't wait to have you on the road.'
Holy shit.
"CC!" Lonny called out in excitement.
The older man ran in and looked at Lonny. "What? What is it?" He asked hurriedly.
"I got a tour lined up for the spring!" He shouted, carefully moving Pasta's head out of his lap so he could jump up from his seat.
"That's fucking awesome, man! I'm so happy for you!" CC exclaimed, pulling Lonny into a tight hug.
"You have wonderful news coming soon for your career that you've been waiting for and... hmmm. Your loveline is very deep, your love life is about to change drastically."
Maria's voice echoed in his head as he pulled away.
Well fuck.
That had to be a lucky guess for the career part...maybe? Possibly?
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Ok we're finally getting somewhere!