Patrick's POV
I woke up with arms around me for the first time in months and in that moment, I was so glad I had a day off from work.
Jem's head was still on my chest, his hair just as wild as it had been last night. Despite the fact that he has slept longer than he usually does, he still looked exhausted.
"It's probably best to just let him sleep," Andrew whispered as he poked his head up from the other side of Jem's shoulder.
"You think that's a good idea? His schedule is going to be fucked."
"I know. See if you can get him to not work today, he needs to rest. Maybe being away, even for only a day will help him snap out of it."
"That seems way easier said than done," I whispered as I forced down a scoff, Jem still remaining passed out.
"It is," he said honestly with a sigh, "but just try it." With that he slipped out of the bed carefully, trying to not wake the sleeping man between us.
An hour later the front door was being closed softly, leaving Jem and I alone.
There were no windows in Jem's room and without turning on my side to look at the clock, and possibly waking him up, there was no way to tell how much time had passed. With nothing else to do, I busied myself by drawing shapes on Jem's shoulder.
So when Jem finally stirred what felt like hours later, relief filled my chest.
Jem eyes opened tiredly as he looked down at my chest before trailing up my body before looking into my eyes. Confusion crossed his face as he blinked once, and then twice, then put his head back on my chest as if it didn't really matter why I was here.
"Good morning," I said after a while of us laying in silence. He only hummed while rolling over to get his phones on the nightstand.
He checked each and every one of them for updates or missed calls and every time he was done with one he put in a pocket or in his waistband before moving on to the next one.
"What are you still doing here," he asked after a while. His voice was harsher than I would have liked it to be but it made me realize I wasn't as welcomed here as I thought I was.
We weren't together. What right did I have to barge into his room last night and sleep in his bed? As much as I understood, it still kind of hurt a bit.
"Not that I mind but you should have been at work hours ago. I hope you didn't waste a sick day on me." I would like to say his reassurance didn't make me feel better but I would be lying.
"I usually get one day off a month. It was my terms when I took the position," I said as I forced myself to sit up while also trying to push away the fact that Mary had been the one to request the term so that we could be together all day. Of course that was back before we were screaming at each other all the time.
"I'm surprised they actually let you do it," Jem sighed as he let his hand rub his face before standing up. "Most places like to work you to death." He added as she began walking to the door.
I was stupid for thinking sleep was going to be enough to snap him out of whatever funk he was in but I was still hoping I hadn't failed quite yet.
I followed him out the door and wasn't surprised in the least to find him perched over the coffee pot.
"I hate Dev sometimes," he mumbled to himself as he watched the coffee slowly drain from the filter into the large pot.
"Because he didn't make you any before he left this morning?"
"Exactly. It should be considered treason," he said. I expected him to laugh at his own joke but by the look on his face, I wasn't really sure he was kidding.
He all but glared at the weak stream until it was finally done. His cup was filled in seconds before he was heading to the office instead of the couch like always.
The sun had been up for hours already so there was nothing really to watch other than the few birds that ate from the birdfeeders or some fish that were jumping out of the lake but it was weird to not sit him sit down for a little bit.
"What are your plans for the day," I asked before he could make it all the way into the room I had come to hate.
"Work." His voice was blank and uncaring.
"Oh," I said as I forced a sigh. "I was hoping we could do something."
"I don't really have time. There's a lot I need to do."
I only nodded.
Andrew had told me how Jem spent his day off with him. He said it had been fun and that he hadn't laughed like that in a while.
I forced myself to not feel jealous as I sat on the couch and stared at the windows but when I heard the office door click shut the jealousy ran through me deeply.
A frown covered my face as I stood up from the couch. I knew it probably was a bad idea but I didn't really care as I marched to Jem's office. I didn't bother knocking and instead just walked in without a word to him.
Jem raised an eyebrow at me but also didn't say anything while I went to the bookshelf on the wall to see if he had anything interesting.
It wasn't until I was seated in the chair in front of him with a book did he say anything.
"You having fun there," he asked but I immediately shushed him. My legs were thrown over one arm of the chair while my back pressed against the other one.
"I'm reading," I said a bit harshly when he looked at me expectedly.
"Is that so?"
"Yes."
"In my office?"
"Yes."
"Because there was no other place you could possibly read?"
"You're being really distracting right now," I sighed as I turned the page without having read a word.
He glared at me a bit but said nothing else as he turned back to his laptop.
Nothing but the sound of his fingers tapping the keys rang through the room.
A sigh left me after a few minutes but Jem didn't seem to care. I flipped the pages loudly and he didn't even look up. I sighed again and again until his eyes finally left the computer and he turned back to me.
"Is there something you needed?"
"Shush," I said as I forced myself to hide my smile behind the book. Jem's annoyed expression dropped into one of utter disbelief as he stared at me but when I said nothing else to him, his eyes moved back to the computer.
I cleared my throat loudly the second his eyes were off of me and that finally seemed like enough.
"Oh my fucking god," he complained as he slammed the expensive laptop closed. "If you want something then just tell me what you what but if you're just here to be a brat and give me a headache then go do it somewhere else. I don't have time for this." His words were harsh and the glare he gave me hurt a bit but I didn't have a chance to say anything else before he was opening the computer again like he hadn't said a word.
I weighed over my options for mere seconds before my smile grew and another sigh left my throat.
"Fuck it," he said boredly as he calmly shut his computer and stood up. He stalked closer to me but before he could reach me I jumped up from the chair and ran out of the room.
A laugh bubbled out of my chest when I heard Jem running after me.
I bolted to the kitchen and ran around the dinning table a few times before moving to the living room, Jem being only a few steps behind me the whole time.
Now I stood at one end of the long couch and he stood at the other in a stand off. Every time he moved closer to one side of the couch I moved to the other side until we were just running around it.
Jem tried hard to act annoyed but I could see the smile hiding under the scowl.
His wild hair was pushed back as a bit of sweat ran down his temple. His chest heaved a bit as he inched just a little closer as if he wee trying to trick me somehow. My smile grew as I followed his inching to keep our distance the same.
"Enjoying this are you," he teased as he continued to inch.
"Very much actually," I said just as he lunged for me.
I ran too but I didn't make it far before he was jumping on me, pushing both of us to the floor.
We landed as harshly as two full-grown men possibly could, making my ribs scream a bit. As I groaned in pain, Jem rolled me over easily before his hands went to pin mine down while his hips kept mine in place.
"Are you still having fun?"
"Admittedly this is much less enjoyable," I groaned. The smile that had once been on my face had moved to Jem's as he looked down at me.
He only hummed as he leaned down to the base of my collar. His breath tickled the skin before his tongue darted out to give it a teasing lick. I tried to move away from his tongue but with his grip there was nothing I could do. When his tongue left and was replaced with his teeth my want to get away left quickly.
His hands moved to put both of mine in his left while the right dragged down my arm before reaching down to collar of my shirt and pulled it down lightly to move the cloth and expose more skin.
His mouth replaced the fabric as he placed nips and kisses over the skin until I was arching into him.
"If you're going to act like a brat, I'm going to show you that you aren't the only one who can be one," he said and before I had even understood his words, my hands were being released and the pressure on my hips were gone.
"Where are you going," I groaned out as I watched his back move closer to the office. I tried to keep the disappointment out of my voice but I don't think it worked.
"Until you're ready to tell me what you want, I'm going back to work. When you decide you're ready then I'll see about doing something else," he called out without even looking at me, my mind still reeling from the fact that he left me alone on the floor.
"Wait," I called out as his foot stepped through the doorway. "I was hoping me could do something."
When he turned around a small smirk was on his face. Despite the wrinkled clothes and the exhaustion still written all over his face, I knew this was the Jem I was coming to know.
"I figured," he said as he walked back to the couch and sat down.
"So you just let me annoy you for no reason," I asked a bit skeptically as I joined him on the couch.
"I wanted to see how far you would take it."
"When exactly could you tell what I was doing?"
"The second you started 'reading'. Gay erotica doesn't seem like your cup of tea," he said as a wide smile covered his face. I could tell the color had drained from my face and my mouth was probably hanging open.
"Why would you have that in your office?" He shrugged.
"Dev likes to keep me company too but he gets bored pretty easily so I keep them for him."
"He reads porn in front of you?"
"I'm going to be honest, that's not the worst thing Dev has ever done to me," a smirk cover his face and I didn't have the guts to ask him about it anymore.
"So what do you want to do," I asked just to change the subject. He didn't say anything as he grabbed an x-box controller and handed it to me before grabbing the other one.
I took it without a word and soon we were playing any game we could think of. Hours passed and after a while video games got boring and he opted for showing the 'glorious world of anime' his words, not mine.
I didn't really care about the show he put on as we sat in silence but as the episodes went on the more I couldn't help but notice our distance.
We were close enough, our knees brushed against each other at every little movement but it didn't feel like enough.
I knew I shouldn't but I couldn't help my eyes glancing at his lap every now and then. His hands were crossed over his chest, making a bit of barrier and was currently the only thing keeping me on the couch cushions instead of where I wanted to be.
"If you want something, ask for it," he said when he caught me glancing.
A blush rushed through me as I forced my eyes back to the TV.
"Can I sit in your lap," I asked but my eyes didn't leave the screen.
"Of course." The second the words left his lips his arms wrapped around my hips and pulled me onto him.
My back was flush with his chest as his arms held my chest tightly.
We sat in silence for a while until I voiced the question that had been on my mind for a few days now.
"Why do you do that?"
"Do what?" His voice was guarded and harsh in a second as if he were convinced he wasn't going to like the question I was about to ask.
"Make me ask even when you know what I want." His body relaxed instantly. His lips bent down to kiss the shell of my ear lightly and I could feel a smile covering his lips, clearly relieved that I wasn't going to force him to talk about whatever had come to his mind.
"You seem like the kind of kid who didn't get what they asked for and after a while you just stopped asking to save time, am I right?"
A pain shot through me at his words. I was the oldest of four and money was always tight. I became a third parent quickly and the younger kids got priority with the spending. The toys I wanted turned into clothes or diapers for my siblings, and looking back now I understand that those things were more important, but to a kid who didn't ask for siblings, it was a kick to the balls and after a while of the 'money is tight and we can't afford to get you new toys' talk, I just stopped asking for things.
When I didn't answer Jem's question he continued as if he was right.
"Not everyone is going to be a mind reader," he said gently. "And not everyone is going to say no the second you get the words out of your mouth. I want to help you unlearn that no matter how long it takes."
My heart jumped at his words but I forced my eyes to stay on the TV in front of me, trying to not make it too obvious that I was trying to blink back a few tears.
His arms tightened around me and I leaned back farther into his chest before looking up at him. He was already looking down at me with a smile. The hand around me came up to cup my cheek but before he even touched me, I leaned up and connected our lips.
The sound Jem made at the contact was enough to make heat pool in my stomach as he pressed harder into my lips.
His teeth nibbled at my lips and when I pulled away instead of opened he pouted a bit.
He stared down at me and his smile was back quickly.
"I didn't feel like asking for that one," I admitted making his give me a breathy laugh.
"You should know then that the answer is always yes to those," he teased as he leaned down to peck my lips again before wrapping his arms around me again and turning back to the TV.
"Noted," I whispered as I followed his gaze and leaned back into his chest.
I tried to push the thought away but no matter how much I tried, it refused to leave my mind.
Did people who were just fooling around talk like that to each other? Did they allow each other to sleep in the same bed even without sex? Did they cuddle in the middle of the day instead of taking care of their responsibilities? Did they say things like that to each other? Did they look as each other the way Jem just looked at me?
Did I only want to be fooling around with Jem?
I don't guess it really mattered. He said he didn't do boyfriends anyway; there was no point in ruining a good thing by asking things like that out loud.
So I sighed to myself as I enjoyed his warmth.
I might not have him forever, but I have him for now so I guess that would have to do.
Last updated Febuary 2, 2022